Milestones are used in project management to mark specific points along a project timeline. They are a key part of any project plan which show you the direction of where the current stage of the project is going to. The milestone in itself carries no duration but in many instances it will impact the total project duration. In Proggio, setting milestones as Target Dates will visually stand out of the project and will not impact the project duration as normally acceptable in project management.
How to Create a Milestone:
To add a milestone – Double click on the timeline area at the top part of your projectmap
Milestone Settings: Clicking once on the milestone will show the milestone settings icon. From the settings you can add name, description, date and color to your Milestone. Choose to exclude it from project Portfolio if you don’t need it for high level management of your projects or Mark it as Target Date if milestone does not impact any phase of your project’s duration.
How Should Milestones Be Used in a Project?
Here’s an example taken from one of our sample Manufacturing projects – Notice how all activities (highlighted in green) converge into a milestone called ‘Line Ready’. The flag on the project timeline shows a visual indication to all stakeholders that manufacturing line must be ready by this date.
Milestones and Target Dates In Project Portfolio View:
- Moving to the Portfolio view, milestones are displayed as arrows across the timeline indicating the duration of the milestone phase. In the project plan view, ‘Line Ready’ flag is placed exactly where the sharp part of the arrow. The second milestone (‘READY!!’) is placed at the end of the project which also indicates it’s end.
- Switching the milestone to a target date transforms the 2 arrows into one long arrow. This now indicates that milestone ‘READY!!’ spreads across one long phase, from the project start till the end. ‘Line Ready’ on the other hand transformed into a Target Date, marked as a flag which has no clear connection to a specific phase in the project.
- Adding another milestone for evaluating the Manufacturing Line will extend the project duration even if there are no activities added.
- Turning the milestone to Target Date, creates a flag on the timeline which does not impact project duration
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