Move an investment through the SAM stages

Mode: how-to. Advance an investment through the six SAM stages, from a Discovery hypothesis to a benefits verdict.

SAM’s lifecycle has six stages, grouped into three acts:

Act	Stages	The question it answers
Commit	Discovery → Approval	Is this worth funding?
Run	Initiation → Delivery	Is it still worth it?
Evaluate	Close-out → Benefits Realisation	What did we get, and what next?

You don’t set the stage on a dropdown. The stage advances as a consequence of the governance acts you perform — chiefly the business case lifecycle. Tollgate guides, it does not enforce: the one deliberate hard gate is the Adoption & Change (BCM) quartet at business case submission; everything else is a soft signal you can act on when you’re ready.

Advance the investment

1. Discovery. Draft the Investment Thesis / Business Case. It sits in an Exploring state with relaxed gates while you pressure-test the problem, outcome, return, and adoption cost. Candidates that don’t survive are archived with a one-line rationale (and stay findable).
2. Approval. Submit the business case with the Adoption & Change quartet set, sponsor named, and problem and outcome polished. It flips to Submitted and appears in the sponsor’s Awaiting your decision queue. See Submit a business case for approval. The sponsor Approves, Returns with notes, or Archives.
3. Initiation. After approval, lay the foundations — work-package structure with owners, baselines, the Adoption work package, a seeded risk register, confirmed cadence. Work the visible checklist: Complete the Initiation checklist.
4. Delivery. The long run. Keep the case file current with the weekly review, self-report Outcome and Adoption confidence alongside RAG, route materialised risks to decisions, and present at each steerco.
5. Close-out. Prepare the close-out submission — as-built outcome and return, residual risks resolved, lessons, BAU handover — and get sponsor sign-off. See Close out an investment.
6. Benefits Realisation. At the 12-month checkpoint, record the verdict. See Run a benefits-realisation review.

Note

Stages don’t run backwards. A closed investment is terminal; if a concern re-emerges, start a fresh charter rather than reopening the old one.

Tip

To see where an investment sits and what comes next, ask the Tollgate agent “Where are we in the SAM methodology — and what comes next?” — see Ask Tollgate.