SC QUALITY GUILDPhase review checklist
SCQUALITYGUILD.COM/TOOLS/DMAIC-PHASE-REVIEW-CHECKLIST.HTML
The questions to ask at the end of each DMAIC phase before the project moves on, with a suggested decision from the answers.
ON THE EXAM · CSSYB II.B.5 · FREE · NOTHING YOU TYPE LEAVES YOUR BROWSER
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What a phase review is
A phase review, or tollgate, is a short meeting at the end of each DMAIC phase where the team presents what it found and the sponsor decides whether the project moves on. It protects the project from its most common failures: an unclear problem in Define, untrustworthy data in Measure, unverified causes in Analyze, unpiloted solutions in Improve and a gain that fades after Control.
The possible decisions
- Go: every question answered yes.
- Go, with actions: the gaps are small, and each has an owner and a date.
- Not yet: something essential is missing; close it and review again.
- Stop: the problem turned out smaller than thought, the business has changed, or the cause is outside anyone's reach. Stopping a project at a tollgate is a success of the process, not a failure.
The tool suggests a decision from the answers. The reviewer makes it.
Answer with evidence
A review where every answer is "yes" and nobody asks to see anything is a formality. Write the evidence against each answer: the document, the data, the date. "Partly" with a clear note is more useful than a hopeful "yes", and the tool asks for a note against every "partly" or "no".
On the Yellow Belt exam
Phase reviews are topic II.B.5 of the 2022 CSSYB Body of Knowledge. See the DMAIC roadmap for what each phase produces.