Normally there are no guidelines or rules in place for changing a project’s stage. A project can be changed to and from any defined stage, and it’s possible to skip stages freely. But managing hundreds of projects and trying to make sure they’re in the correct stage is almost impossible to do manually.
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With this in mind company admins can choose to switch projects to a sequential based process and specify criteria that has to be met at each stage. This means projects are limited to only transition forwards or backwards one stage at a time with specific actions needing to be completed at each stage before the project can progress forward. This is a powerful tool project managers can utilise to make sure each project using a template at least meets minimum requirements.
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Stage criteria is meant to enforce a clear project process but above all it’s a tool to explain it. At every step the team will have clear goals they must reach to bring the project to the next stage, engaging the project team while at the same time re-assuring managers the projects are in the correct state.
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If you see a lock icon in your project stage it means there is uncompleted criteria defined at the stage. You can also simply click on the stage to see more information on what needs to be completed:

One important thing to note is that the criteria are additive, meaning criteria set for earlier stages still have to be met at later stages. Even if the current stage meets all the criteria it will lock if an earlier stage no longer meets its criteria. This will be visualised with a red warning triangle:

If another team member performs an action that unlocks the next stage the project

owners will be notified that the project is ready to progress forwards:

And that's really all there is to it! Hopefully, this feature will help your organisation get projects across the finish line 🏁