What is a Decision Gate?

Decision Gate – milestone with product assignment

A decision gate is a milestone in a project at which a decision is made about the continuation of the project and the release of the next project phase. Thus a decision gate – sometimes referred to as decision point – is a quality gate. The decision gate in V-Modell XT – the German guideline for planning and implementing system development projects – is used as a term.

While the milestone often emphasizes a temporal aspect and the quality gate a qualitative aspect on a fixed date, the focus at a decision gate – as the name suggests – is on the decision to be made at a certain point. A decision has to be made about the release of the next project phase. The decision is based on the results generated, which are referred to as products in the V-Modell. A product can be any result – e.g. documents such as a requirement specification, a project manual, a QA manual or a software etc.

The creation of the products in V-Modell XT is implemented using process modules that do not, however, make any statement about the order in which projects are carried out. This is where the project execution strategies come into play; they determine the quantity and sequence of the necessary decision points. A decision gate is therefore a milestone with product assignment, whereby the product must have a predefined quality.