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The gate checklist
Every stage's exit gate, what the stage produces, and the questions to ask before passing it.
This is a list of questions to bring to a review. It is not a compliance tool, and ticking every question does not show that anything meets a standard or replaces pre-use review or validation.
Tick each question by hand as the gate review answers it. How formal a gate is depends on where you work.
Stage 1 · Discover
- What it produces
- Needs analysis, learner profiles, delivery constraints
- Exit gate
- Need and cohort agreed
- Can we name the cohort this release is for?
- Would a different cohort need a different program from the same standard?
- Are the delivery constraints written down, or only assumed?
Stage 2 · Specify
- What it produces
- Structured standard
- Exit gate
- Standard complete and active
- Is this the current, active version of the standard?
- Could two designers read a descriptor and agree on what evidence would show it?
- Is anything in the standard we have not yet represented?
Stage 3 · Map
- What it produces
- Mapping matrix, assessment strategy
- Exit gate
- Coverage plan approved
- Does every descriptor have planned evidence? Does every planned task trace to a descriptor?
- Where a program clusters several standards, can each standard's coverage still be read on its own?
- Would an auditor find the plan complete today, before anything is built?
Stage 4 · Outline
- What it produces
- Skeletons of every deliverable
- Exit gate
- Structure approved
- Does the sequence build skills in an order a learner can follow?
- Is any section serving no descriptor, or any descriptor without a section?
- Would changing the order later mean rewriting finished content?
Stage 5 · Assessment first
- What it produces
- Assessment tasks, marking guides, a simulated workplace or case study
- Exit gate
- Compliance, pedagogy and subject-matter sign-off
- Does each task produce the evidence the matrix says it will?
- Would two assessors mark the same response the same way from the guide?
- Is the scenario realistic for the cohort named at Discover, and are permitted adjustments written down?
- Have compliance, pedagogy and subject-matter reviewers signed off? (How formal each sign-off is depends on where you work.)
Stage 6 · Develop
- What it produces
- Learning materials and activities
- Exit gate
- Accuracy and quality review
- Is it accurate and current? Has a subject-matter expert checked it?
- Is there content that prepares for nothing assessed, or a task nothing prepares for?
- Can the named cohort read and use it, including learners using assistive technology?
Stage 7 · Plan delivery
- What it produces
- Session or module plan
- Exit gate
- Every outcome has a delivery session
- Does every outcome have a delivery session?
- Does the planned time on task fit the hours available, with room for learners who need longer?
- Could a trainer new to this program deliver it from the plan?
Stage 8 · Validate and release
- What it produces
- Validation record, release identifier
- Exit gate
- Released to a named cohort
- Has it been reviewed before use, and did the findings change it?
- Was the review read against the learner profiles from Discover, including access needs?
- Can we say, a year from now, exactly which version this cohort received?
- Are the known limitations recorded, so they are not rediscovered as complaints?
Stage 9 · Deliver and observe
- What it produces
- Delivery signals, results, feedback, complaints and appeals
- Exit gate
- Cohort complete
- Is the cohort complete, and do we know which version every learner received?
- Was every problem that staff or learners raised written down, against the part of the program it concerns?
- Can we tell content issues from delivery issues in what we collected?
Stage 10 · Improve
- What it produces
- Improvement log, change requests
- Exit gate
- Changes accepted into the next release
- Which changes go into the next release, and which wait?
- Can each change be traced to the evidence that prompted it?
- Is curriculum debt shrinking, steady or growing?
Version 0.3.0, 2026-10-23 · Education Development Lifecycle (EDLC), Tutelage, edlc.tutelage.au, CC BY 4.0