222 CHAPTER ◆ 2 4 Gate 3
Gate 3 will prevent implementation of the trading/investment system until the required
activities and deliverables have been completed in a quality manner. Furthermore, this
gate will chart the path ahead by ensuring that plans and budgets have been made for
Stage 4. A go to launch decision will mean the product team will receive investment capital
to start trading immediately.
While a system may be ready to go, management will consider external factors before
giving a final go ahead. The portfolio review process will again be affected by changing
market and economic conditions, new trading/investment opportunities, hedging con-
siderations, and functional interdependence among new and working trading/investment
systems. Top management should consider the current investment cycle and its projected
effect on the profitability of the portfolio of systems, as well as look forward to what the
investment cycle might be when the trading/investment system is launched. External factors
may also include commitments by investment capital providers.
Given the late stage of development, shutting down a project at this gate will undoubtedly
result in a full-blown political battle. Of course, it is better to win a battle to close down
or park a project versus losing tens of millions of dollars in a trading/investment system
that has poor information coefficient ratios.24.1. Process Improvement and Benchmarking
Gate meetings are also convenient times to review:● The design and development processes that produced the trading/investment system
up to this point.
● The performance of the product team.
● The documentation protocols and how they may be improved.After each stage (or even after each loop, especially the first loop of a new stage), we
recommend holding a poststage (or postloop) review meeting. Reflecting on experiences
of the previous loop or stage is a critical factor to improving design and development
processes, that is, to evolving a successful methodology. Incremental improvement in
processes, then, mirrors incremental development. Done regularly, process review meetings
should become part of the rhythm of the design and development process.
Successful teams develop the ability to communicate and criticize each other honestly
and openly. The first condition for good teamwork is that each team member understands
that he alone is responsible for the whole. A team must be able to look at itself and learn
from its successes and failures. Some key questions might be● What did the team learn?
● What can the team do better/faster next time?
● What factors are really making the team perform well or poorly?
● Are we communicating effectively?
● Could interteam relationships be improved?
● Are the team ’ s goals of output and quality being achieved?
● Did the team have the right resources to achieve success?