Types of Project Stage Gates

Stage gates are checkpoints within a project phase that help project teams and PMOs control the progression of work. Each gate has a Gate Mode that determines how the gate is managed, who can close it, and whether it blocks progression to the next phase.

The default gate mode. The Project Manager is responsible for reviewing the gate criteria and manually declaring the gate as closed when they are satisfied that the requirements have been met.

How it works:

• The gate appears on the project phase and is shown as open.

• The Project Manager reviews any associated criteria or notes.

• When satisfied, the PM toggles the gate to closed directly from the project workspace.

• The gate must be closed before the phase can be marked as complete.

Best suited for:

• Gates where the PM has full accountability and authority to sign off.

• Lightweight checkpoints with no formal external approval process.

• Internal team milestones or quality checks.

Approval gates introduce a formal sign-off workflow. Instead of the Project Manager closing the gate directly, a request is sent to an approver or approval group. The gate remains open until the approver acts on it.

How it works:

• The gate appears on the project phase and is shown as open.

• The Project Manager submits the gate for approval, which triggers a notification to the configured approver(s).

• The approver reviews the gate and either approves or rejects it.

• On approval, the gate is automatically closed.

• On rejection, the gate returns to open and the PM can review, update, and resubmit.

• The gate must be approved and closed before the phase can progress.

Best suited for:

• Stage gates that require a formal governance sign-off (e.g., a Programme Director or Steering Committee).

• Gates with compliance or regulatory requirements where an audit trail of the decision is needed.

• Any checkpoint where the PM should not have the authority to self-certify.

Informational gates are non-blocking. They are designed to provide Project Managers with contextual information or dynamic hyperlinks at key points in a phase without gating phase progression. The gate is automatically closed by the system when the phase is propagated to projects and does not require any manual action.

How it works:

• The gate is automatically set to closed when applied to projects — no manual action is required.

• It does not block phase completion or progression.

• An optional hyperlink can be configured on the gate using a dynamic expression. This allows the gate to surface a relevant URL at the project level, for example a link to a document, a SharePoint page, or an external tool, resolved dynamically based on project data.

Configuring a hyperlink:

When setting up an Informational gate in the Stage Gate template editor, you can optionally provide:

• Hyperlink Title — the label displayed to the Project Manager (e.g., "Open Lessons Learned Register").

• Hyperlink Expression — a dynamic expression that resolves to a URL at the project level. You can use project properties, the gate's own GUID (GateGuid), and other supported expression variables to build the URL dynamically.

Best suited for:

• Surfacing supporting materials, templates, or tools at the right point in a project phase.

• Signposting PMs to external resources without requiring a formal action or sign-off.

• Providing a dynamic link to a related external record or system scoped to the individual project.

External Workflow gates are designed for integration scenarios where the gate state is managed by an external system rather than by users within Fluid. Project Managers cannot toggle these gates manually — the gate status is updated exclusively via the Fluid V3 API.

How it works:

• The gate appears on the project phase and is shown as open.

• An external system (for example a Power Automate flow, a Power Apps canvas app, or any other workflow platform) calls the Fluid REST API to set the gate as open or closed.

• Users viewing the gate in the project workspace can see its current state but cannot change it.

• A hyperlink can optionally be configured on the gate (using the same dynamic expression mechanism as Informational gates) to give the PM a direct link to the external system or workflow that manages the gate.

• The gate must be closed (by the external system) before the phase can progress.

API integration:

External systems update gate state via the Fluid V3 Stage Gate API:

PUT /rest/api/stagegates/{projectGuid}/{gateId}
Body: { "isClosed": true }

Calls require a valid authentication token and the calling identity must have at least Editor-level access to the project.

Best suited for:

• Gates whose approval or closure is handled inside an external workflow platform (e.g., Power Automate, ServiceNow, Jira, Azure DevOps).

• Integration scenarios where Fluid is the system of record for project status, but the gate decision is made elsewhere.

• Any gate where preventing manual user override is a governance requirement.

Use this guide to help select the appropriate mode when designing a stage gate template:

Gate modes are set when building or editing a stage gate template in the Stage Gate Administration area.

1. Navigate to Administration Console > Stage Gates.

2. Select the relevant stage gate template or create a new one.

3. Add or edit a gate within a phase.

4. Set the Gate Mode field to the desired type.

5. For Informational and External Workflow gates, optionally configure the Hyperlink Title and Hyperlink Expression fields.

6. Save the template. Changes will be reflected when the template is propagated to projects.

Note: Changing the Gate Mode of an existing gate in a template will update the behaviour for any projects where the gate has not yet been closed. Projects where the gate is already closed are not affected.