Gates, and what done means

A gate is a point work does not pass until a stated condition is met. Not a review, not a checkpoint, not a status update. A condition, and a refusal.

Most operations have checkpoints and believe they have gates. The difference shows up under pressure: at a checkpoint, work that is not ready is discussed and then proceeds. At a gate it stops. If nothing in your process has ever stopped at a given checkpoint, it is not a gate and you should not plan as though it were.

For a gate to be operable, done has to be defined, and a workable definition has four parts. Who owns it. By when. What specifically is expected, in terms someone else could verify. And what happens next, named, with the next owner identified.

Leave out any one and the gate degrades predictably. No owner and it becomes everyone's problem, which is nobody's. No date and it becomes a queue. No verifiable expectation and it becomes a matter of opinion, which the most senior person present wins. No named next step and completed work sits, which is the failure people notice last because nothing looks broken.

Start with one gate, at the seam where work most often comes back. Write the four parts. Hold it once under real pressure. That single held refusal will teach the organisation more about your operating standard than any amount of stated policy.