From the course: Project Management Foundations: Schedules

Add milestones to your schedule - Microsoft Project Tutorial

From the course: Project Management Foundations: Schedules

Add milestones to your schedule

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- [Instructor] Milestones are markers you add to your schedule to measure progress and flag events. They don't include effort, so they don't affect project duration or labor hours. Stick milestones at the beginning and end of your project. The beginning milestone shows when the project starts. If the start gets pushed out, you simply move the starting milestone. All of the project scope has to finish before the end of milestone. It shows whether the project will be on time, late or ahead of schedule. Add milestones at the beginning of phases. That way, if earlier activities are delayed, the phases starting milestone can push the next phase to start on a later date. Add another milestone to the end of the phase. In the example, the website has three phases, add milestones at the beginning and end of the plan, design, and construct phases. Add milestones to represent completion of deliverables. These milestones should have clear completion criteria. So you can tell that they are truly complete. name these milestones with the deliverable name and its status. In the example, you might add milestones at the end of the major deliverables like manuscript complete, layout complete and guide available for sale. Then you can add additional deliverable milestones for interim deliverables like preparation complete, manuscript written, graphics captured, and manuscript revised. A milestone can also flag a significant decision such as whether to continue the project. If a decision is delayed, for instance, while you wait for the next management meeting, you can reschedule the milestone and the rest of the activities move out in the calendar. Handoffs to other teams is another use for milestones. By watching these milestones, you can see when the next team can expect to start work. Finally, milestones can flag important events like delivery from the printer. A milestone chart is a simple way to show progress to your stakeholders. They can see at a glance where the project stands. The great thing about milestones is that they don't take any time. So you can add as many as you need without affecting the amount of work or the project duration. If your project schedule has long stretches between milestones, add more to highlight progress in each reporting period. For example, if writing the manuscript runs for several weeks, you can add milestones for completing different modules so that you have a milestone each reporting period. Milestones help you see progress, decision points, handoffs, and important events, because they don't take up any time you can add all the milestones you need to manage your project.

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