Glossary · 5 · Content lifecycle and AI
Review gate
Also known as: Quality gate, Approval gate, Release gate
In content and development processes, a review gate is a defined point at which content or a work product may only move on to the next stage after a named, qualified person has reviewed it against stated criteria and recorded a decision to release, return or stop it.
- Content lifecycle
- AI
- Technical documentation
In one sentence
A review gate is a defined point where content moves on only after a named person has reviewed it against criteria and recorded a decision.
Example
A translated safety manual passes the gate to publication only after the country's subject-matter reviewer has checked it against the source and signed the release in the content management system.
How it applies
- Criteria and roles: A gate states what is checked (technical accuracy, completeness of safety-related information, terminology, legal requirements), who checks it and who decides. The decision and its date are recorded, which makes it part of the audit trail.
- Typical gates in documentation: release of the source content, release of each language version, release of a publication or delivery package, and approval of changes after a product change.
- AI functions: Content drafted or translated by an AI model passes the same gates as human-written content. The person at the gate is the human in the loop who decides; tools can prepare the check, for example by flagging differences or rule violations, but they do not pass the gate.
- Proportion: The strictness of a gate can follow a classification of content by risk, but gates are never skipped for safety-related or legally required information.
Review gate vs. release decision
The review gate is the place in the process; the release decision is what the responsible person decides there. A gate without a recorded decision is only a checkpoint.
External references
- Cooper (1990), Stage-gate systems, Business Horizons: https://doi.org/10.1016/0007-6813(90)90040-I