In engineering (and many other disciplines) there is a stage gate process that prevents too much activity from taking place until there is enough capability or experience available. This idea can be applied to business improvement quite simply by recognising the phases of your improvement work. If you are needing to go through many changes in quick succession it may be worthwhile to define the most appropriate sequence and then to work out what the right pace would be. By this I mean you need to decide what the criteria is that allows you to progress along your road map. If you don't qualify then you don't progress. By defining the stage gates in the road map you gain clarity of what the map actually looks like. Without this level of definition you end up with a hazy map of activity. From defining the various requirements to move to the next phase you are able to clearly communicate what needs to happen at each stage. This clarity can help to improve the quality of the ac