Team Members

• John Farris, Grand Valley State University
• Paul Lane, Grand Valley State University
• Clif Kussmaul, Muhlenberg College

Overview

This team will develop a general stage-gate model specifically intended to support projects and E-Teams. For each stage, we will identify and document best practices, as well as activities, templates, and other materials to facilitate their adoption. For each gate, we will develop and document objective criteria.

For example, we anticipate that early stages will identify opportunities; subsequent stages will explore risks and requirements, and develop business cases; and later stages will seek external funding or other commercialization. Activities might include brainstorming, interviews and focus groups, and risk analysis procedures. Document templates might include team status reports, business case outlines, non-disclosure agreements, and checklists for each gate.

This model will provide a useful reference and common vocabulary for projects that span departments or institutions. We will also identify how and where the Body Of Knowledge is addressed in the model, which in turn will help prioritize Curriculum Modules.

Before the working meeting, we will search the literature, review stage-gate models used in academia and industry, and conduct 10 phone interviews with entrepreneurs and faculty at PUIs to explore and identify best practices and common problems. We will then draft a generalized stage-gate model that includes the best practices, as well as a proposed list of supporting documents and materials. The model will be critiqued at the working meeting, and then will be revised and posted online to the project website. Finally a web survey of PUI faculty will provide further feedback to revise the model.