Project Milestones

Abstract

Some studies have come to the conclusion that there is correlation between project planning and project success. . In addition, according to the Project Management institute almost 40% of projects failures is due because of poor planning. Due to that fact it is very important that project managers use good planning methods because planning is one of their responsibilities. Project milestones is a project management tool that project managers find useful to identify important events in the life of the project. So, project milestones help project managers to track deadlines and critical dates, see potential bottlenecks and see how time and resources are allocated. By using project milestones, it can also give more visibility to stakeholders so they can see better how the project is going as well as the project teams will have a better overview of what they are responsible for. The focus in this article will be on explaining what project milestones are, how they can be used and how SMART goals can be used to make the project milestones more effective. In addition to that the article will discuss on how project milestones are applied as well as pinpointing advantages, disadvantages, and limitations of the tool.

Introduction

A project milestone is an event on a schedule that marks significant progress in a project. It might be the completion of a work package, a delivery stage or perhaps a management stage. By breaking the plan using milestones, the project manager will be able to get an early indication of problems related to the schedule, as well as a clearer view of the activities that are crucial to the timeline of the plan. Additionally, the milestones are useful because they have zero duration so they will not affect the schedule at all. Project milestones are usually defined in the planning phase of a project and are updated as the project develops.

There is no right number of milestones or how much time there should be between them but if they are too many or too few, they lose their value. The project milestones should be fewer than the work packages or the deliverables but enough to measure if the plan is progressing as planned. Some people might suggest setting milestones around once a month to the plan. That can be a good guideline, but it is important to take professional experience into account. Some months could have a lot of activity while others can focus more on execution which leaves little left to set a milestone on. For the purpose of reporting it is useful to have at least one milestone for each reporting cycle.

Having milestones part of your project gives an opportunity to celebrate when project milestones have been reached. It can be in the form of handshake, note or lunch to take an example. By doing that there will be a more positive relationship between the team and the project manager and more trust which leads to a productive project.

Application

When identifying and defining project milestones it is good to follow the SMART goals to make the milestones as effective as possible. By using the SMART goals, it will help the project managers to make them specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and timely. A little description on how each SMART goal can make the milestones more affectable.

Specific: Every milestone should be specific or in other words everyone should be able to see it and know what must be done to reach it. It is important because otherwise the milestones are confusing and more likely to be undoable.

Measurable: To have an effective milestone it is important to be able to measure them. That can for instance be done by using to do lists. By using to do lists milestones can be broken down to tasks. The tasks can then be measurable because they are either completed or not. So, by looking at the to do list it is quite easy to see how far along the milestone is.

Attainable: It is very important that the milestone is not too big or to complex so it can be attainable. It is important because it is very discouraging to work hard to complete a milestone when you cannot see the finish line.

Relevant: This SMART goal might be clear, but it is important that the milestone is relevant to the project. That is because having to many factors outside the project plan may disturb and derail the effort.

Timely: To have an efficient milestone it is important that it can be tracked. Each of the project milestones should have a start time, due date and expected timeframe. Without it there is no purpose to finish anything because there is no time limit.

In addition to those five points it is good to have in mind to have the project milestones open.

Open: The project milestones should be open and presentable which means they should not have a lot of technical terms so the milestones can be easily explained to non-technical people like clients. With clear milestones there will be no misinterpretation or confusion.

Steps

The application of the project milestones can be defined in four steps. They are:

Step 1: Identifying and defining the project milestones:

One of the first things when identifying project milestones is to separate them from tasks. That can be done by deciding which elements of the project will become the greatest accomplishments. To do that it is good to write down everything that has to be done. If the element could have a major impact on the final deadline or if the element is a pivotal point in helping the project move forward, then it is most likely a project milestone. As well if it is a stage in the project that the stakeholders will need to review it is a project milestone. There are three questions that can be good to ask and answer when finding project milestones, they are:

Question 1: How crucial is this decision, task or event to the implementation of the entire project? - If it is extremely important it is a project milestone.

Question 2: What could be the potential effect of this decision, task or event if it is not carried out in time or when it is necessary? - If the answer is significant impact it is a project milestone.

Question 3: Could this decision, task or event be seen as a measurement of the project success? - If the answer is yes, it is a project milestone.

When the project milestones have been identified it is good to name the project milestones. The name should give a direct description on the project milestone, but it is important to be careful to not imply that the milestone is a task. For instance, the milestone should not be named ´Get the agreement moved to Phase 2´ but rather ´Phase 2 begins´. To show what must be done to get the agreement to move to phase 2 can be done by adding a task before the project milestone to cover it. Some project managers choose to number their project milestones but as the number of project milestones increases the more important it gets to name your milestones to make them even more clear.