IntroductionProjects are widely used by many organizations and government institutions in the course of conducting their business. One reason is that they have proven to be effective in initiating change and translating strategic programs into daily activities. However, it has been established that most projects fail to meet time, budget and client specifications. In most cases, this failure is caused by excessive optimism on the part of the project management team. This excessive optimism, commonly called optimism bias, can be simply defined as an overestimation of the project's benefits and, conversely, an underestimation of its costs and duration. Research has shown that this is often caused by a failure to identify, understand and effectively manage the risk associated with the project, therefore jeopardizing its success (Mott McDonald, 2002). Fortunately, this bias can be detected and minimized during the Project Gateway process. Project Gateway Process This process aims to ensure that the project being pursued has potential for realization within the allocated time, within budget and, very importantly, satisfying customer specifications (Mott McDonald, 2002). It is about evaluating projects at critical stages (also called gates) of their life cycle and thus ensuring that they can successfully progress to the next phase. This function is carried out by an independent expert team, after which it assures the responsible senior owners that the project can progress successfully (National Academies US & National Research US, 2004). There are six critical phases (gateways) in the life cycle of a project that the independent gateway review team will evaluate and then provide the...... middle of document ......0: Strategic assessment. Retrieved from http://www.ogc.gov.uk/documents/cp0004.pdf.Office of Government Commerce. (2007b). OGC Gateway Process Review 1: BusinessJustification. Retrieved from http://www.ogc.gov.uk/documents/cp0005.pdf.Office of Government Commerce. (2007c). OGC Gateway Process Review 2: Delivery Strategy. Retrieved from http://www.ogc.gov.uk/documents/cp0006.pdf. Office of Government Commerce. (2007d). OGC Gateway Process 3 Review: Investment Decision. Retrieved from http://www.ogc.gov.uk/documents/cp0007.pdf.Office of Government Commerce. (2007e). OGC Gateway Process Review 4: Preparing for Service. Retrieved from http://www.ogc.gov.uk/documents/cp0008.pdf.Office of Government Commerce. (2007f). OGC Gateway 5 Process Review: Review Operations and Realize Benefits. Retrieved from http://www.ogc.gov.uk/documents/cp0009.pdf.