Milestone (project management)

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Within the framework of project management, a milestone is the end of a stage that marks the completion of a work package or phase, typically marked by a high level event such as completion, endorsement or signing of a deliverable, document or a high level review meeting.

In addition to signaling the completion of a key deliverable, a milestone may also signify an important decision or the derivation of a critical piece of information, which outlines or affects the future of a project. In this sense, a milestone not only signifies distance traveled (key stages in a project) but also indicates direction of travel since key decisions made at milestones may alter the route through the project plan.

[edit] Choosing Milestones

Whether a deliverable or a decision, a milestone signifies a key event in the project; it should not be used to refer to intermediate tasks or processes, even when these are critical to the outcome of the project. While there is no "correct" number of milestones or duration between them, they lose their value as communication points when there are too many or too few. There should be far fewer milestones than deliverables or work packages, but there should be enough milestones to gauge whether or not the project is proceeding as planned at major intervals. It is important not to confuse milestones with multiple unrelated metrics. A milestone is a singular key event in developing a coherent phase or section of a works package.

[edit] Using Milestones in Scheduling

Milestones can add significant value to project scheduling. When combined with a sophisticated scheduling methodology such as PERT or CPM, milestones allow project management to much more accurately determine whether or not the project is on schedule. By constraining the dates associated with milestones, the critical path can be determined for major schedule intervals in addition to the entire project. Slack/float can also be calculated on each schedule interval. This segmentation of the project schedule into intervals allows earlier indication of schedule problems and a better view into the activities whose completion is critical to the project timeline.

Milestones are frequently used to monitor progress, but there are limitations to their effectiveness. They usually show progress only on the critical path, and ignore non-critical activities. It is not uncommon for resources to be moved from non-critical activities to critical activities to ensure that milestones are met. This gives the impression that the project is on schedule when actually some activities are being neglected. The best way to measure progress is by using Earned Value Analysis. This records how much work in total should be performed each day across the whole project, and measures how much has been performed (based on progress information applied to tasks), thus showing progress for the project as a whole.