Milestone Planning

The characteristics for a successful plan are to provide a path that lead towards a specific goal within a projects scope. The path to create a decent plan can be divided by various activities, uncertainties, phases, and decisions. The similarly between those unknown variables are that they are a part of a milestone plan which is an essential project, program and portfolio management tool. Managing or using a milestone plan allows management on different detail levels. The tool can navigate between important phases and its decision points.

A milestone plan is constructed by milestones instead of focusing on activities. When using a milestone plan in a project planning it gives a goal- and result orientated planning. In a beginning of a project a milestone plan can give assistance to clarify some of the deliverables for the project within the present knowledge. It is important to know the project goal(s). Some project goals are not concrete and therefore alternated although the planning. Changes though the planning is necessary to reach a common goal that satisfies all stakeholders. The goal can be redirected by new knowledge and that is why it is important to have milestones which create a decision point on “Are we going in the right direction, or do we need to alternate our future planning?” or “Have we achieve the deliverables for this milestone?”.

This article will explore a few scenarios where a milestone plan is either used in a program plan or a contribution by creation a monitoring platform that allows a regular review of the project-, program, or portfolio achievements with in an organization´s strategic plan. Furthermore, the concept will be reflected critically with a practical approach and guidance.

Context

Figure 1: Organizational Strategy retrieved from PMBOK® Guide – Sixth Edition (2017), Figure 1-3, page 12.

• Project has a life cycles and contain various elements such as activities, objectives, focus, benefits etc.

• Program is defined by multiple projects which are grouped together. With subsidiary projects it is possible to track the interdependencies and which intended benefits are achieved. This may not be possible by managing each project individually.

• Portfolio is an effective managing of multiple programs and projects. Portfolio is a process with subsidiary programs and projects that are grouped to gain strategic objectives.

Planning is an essential part of every aspect for managing a project, program, or portfolio. A milestone plan can be used and executed in all detail levels but are used for different purposes. One reason could be that a project and a program both include elements of time. Time regarding a project or a program indicate that it is temporary. Even if a program takes years or decades to fulfill its panned achievements. In contrary, a portfolio does not need a specific end date.

A portfolio encompasses various elements of initiatives and work is not related to each other, to attain the planned benefits. The beginning of initiatives is related to an organization’s strategic plan. The organization’s strategic plan can control the start, or the end of a specific investment. This means the owner(s) of the portfolio are grouping resources dependent on the different subjects such as geographical area, work that must be delivered to the same client, etc. In these scenarios it can be complexed to use a milestone plan.

A plan consisted of milestones for a portfolio could be use, but it cannot obtain concrete monitoring, because portfolios and its activities are not necessary linked together. To get an overview of the relationship between projects, programs and portfolio can figure 1 be used. This figure 1 illustrates a strategy regarding an organization as an example. As mention earlier, a portfolio can contain other portfolios and programs. Portfolio management can include stand-alone projects or have multiple programs before it reaches the portfolio level. The objective of these variations is to gain the planned benefits or subgoals. Furthermore, it is important to notice that the relation between a project, program, or portfolio share resources and stakeholders.

This information is critical, because there is a limit to the resources and which project it is allocated to. The variation for a portfolios structure is important regarding resources. You can ask yourself; “does a portfolio have 3 programs, 5 projects that need resources?” or “does a portfolio consist of 1 program with 10 projects?” This difference changes the allocation of resources and the strategy to group resources for every part.

Explanation and its purpose

• Short introduction that leads on to the use of a milestone plan.
• Describe the concept/tool by making nice figures that explain milestone planning.

Guidance with a practical approach

This is how you use a milestone plan

• Make a guidance which can be used by a project manager, steering committee, and top management of a company.
• Maybe include examples on the approach.

Limitations

• Explain shortly what makes a milestone plan a good tool.
• Discuss the limitations and usual mistakes throughout a project/ program and reflect on how and why these mistakes are happening. The right way to use a milestone plan and the wrong way to use a milestone plan.

Annotated bibliography

Attrup, M. L. and Olsson, J.R. , Power i projekter og portefølje, page 100, DJØF Publishing (2008), ISBN: 978-87-574-1665-7.

• This reference discuss the concepts of various management tools including milestone plan. It establishes the basis for at great planning within a practical approach. Beside the basis knowledge, it successfully connects specific parts to a project, program, or portfolio management. When planning a project independently the path to achieve it may be different considered to several reasons. Some of the reasons could be the present knowledge and which effect it has on stakeholders and the steering committee. This balance of information on the concrete management tools and how to implement them on a project, program, or portfolio is why this reference is annotated.

Project Management Institute, Inc.. (2017). Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide) (6th Edition). Project Management Institute, Inc. (PMI).

• This is a standard regarding project management and knowledge. It provides knowledge on the relationship for project, program, and portfolio management. The relationship is illustrated by an organizational approach toward an understanding that embrace the differences. …

The Standard for Program Management – Fourth Edition (2017).

• For this article it is important to use the literature Standard for Program Management. This standard clearly provides terms and definitions that explain precisely information regarding program and its uncertainties. …