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The Vantage Meridian Delivery Framework. Five phases. Four gates. One hybrid model.

A practical structure for delivering complex technology and business change: five phases give the work shape, four gates give it assurance. The model is a deliberate PRINCE2 + Agile hybrid - predictive stage gates for the steering layer, agile cycles with defined delivery goals inside the team. Where a client has its own project management methodology, Vantage Meridian works to it, so this is the default rather than a condition of engagement.

The hybrid model

Five phases. One hybrid discipline.

Waterfall on the outside, agile on the inside. Senior leadership sees a predictive, gated project with tolerances and a paper trail, while the team runs short cycles (sprints) inside each phase, aligned to the phase objectives.

PRINCE2
(Control Layer)

Governance, approvals, tolerances, reporting and stage boundaries

AGILE
(Team Layer)

Iterative delivery in short cycles (sprints) to produce usable incremental outcomes

Initiation

Planning

Delivery

Monitor

Closure

Establish mandate, objectives, stakeholders, high-level scope, business case outline.

Build detailed plan, schedule, RAID log, financial model, quality plan and risk strategy.

Deliver iterative outcomes against the plan, manage change and risks, ensure quality and benefits progress.

Track performance, manage issues, risks and benefits, report and take corrective actions.

Handover, final reconciliation, lessons captured and project formally closed.

Sprints run within
Initiation

Outcome: Inception outputs - insight, options, prototypes, validated problem and scope.

Sprints run within
Planning

Outcome: Planning outputs - plans, estimates, solution design, prototypes.

Sprints run within
Delivery

Outcome: Potentially releasable increments, features and value delivered.

Sprints run within
Monitor

Outcome: Improvements, corrective actions, performance and benefits realised.

Handover & Close

Final deliverables accepted
Documentation & knowledge transfer
Financial reconciliation
Lessons learned
End Project Report

Outcome: Formal close and transition to BAU.

Two colleagues working a plan through on paper beside open laptops - the framework as it is used day to day

Initiation

Produces: Sponsor, mandate, business case and team in place

Establish sponsor intent, the mandate and the governance around it, get the business case approved and stand the team up. Initiation ends when there is authority to plan and someone accountable for the outcome.

Planning

Produces: Project plan, schedule, RAID log and financial model

Build the control baseline: the project plan and schedule, the RAID log and the bottom-up financial model. The delivery goals the team will work to are fixed here, which is what makes the agile layer underneath accountable.

Delivery

Produces: Design, build, test and cutover against defined goals

The team runs iterative cycles - plan, build, review, refine - against the delivery goals set at Planning, through design, build, test and cutover. The control layer above keeps reporting to its own cadence while the cycles run.

Monitor

Produces: Performance, benefits, stability and financial reconciliation

The traditional monitor-and-control phase, run after Delivery and before Closure. Hypercare, operational acceptance, benefits tracking and the financial reconciliation - the phase where the claim made in the business case gets tested against live running.

Closure

Produces: Handover, reconciliation, lessons and formal close

Handover to the business, final reconciliation, lessons captured and the project formally closed. There is no gate out of Closure: it ends with the End Project Report signed off, because closure is the exit rather than another decision to take.

Governance assurance

The four gates.

Each gate is a named decision with a named decider, and each one closes a phase. There is no gate out of Closure - the project ends with the End Project Report signed off. Gates sit in the control layer, so the team keeps working to its cycle while the decision is taken.

G1 Authorise Planning

Closes Initiation · Sponsor / deciding body

Business Case approved
Scope & HLR sign-off
SteerCo Charter sign-off

G2 Authorise Delivery

Closes Planning · Steering committee

Project Plan sign-off
Cost Plan and budget approved
RAID Log baselined

G3 Authorise Monitoring

Closes Delivery · Steering committee / sponsor

Go No-Go Checklist sign-off
Release Plan executed
Deployment verified

G4 Authorise Closure

Closes Monitor · Sponsor + business owner

Operational acceptance signed
Benefits handover accepted
Financials reconciled

The spiral staircase rendered as an etched print - the five phases ascend the same way

Apply this framework

Need help applying it?

Every engagement artefact maps to a phase and a gate, and the articles work through how the phases play out in practice. The governance is sized to the work, not applied by rote. Consulting picks up where the framework leaves off.

Engage Vantage Meridian → Case studies