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Milestones
Short answer
A milestone is a zero-duration event marking a significant deliverable or phase completion, used for progress tracking and status communication. They are specific, measurable, and typically named with a noun and past participle, like 'Design approved'.
What do you mean by milestones?
A milestone is a significant point or event in a project, usually marking the completion of a major deliverable or phase, or an important decision. It has zero duration and consumes no resources. The schedule shows milestones to indicate progress.
Characteristics
- Zero duration; no work or cost.
- Specific, observable and measurable (done or not done).
- Linked to a deliverable, approval or decision.
- Named with a noun and past participle: "Design approved".
- Should be few and meaningful, not every task.
Uses
- Tracking progress: easy check of whether the project is on schedule.
- Communication: summarise status to senior management and customer.
- Control points: phase-end reviews (stage gates) decide whether to continue.
- Dividing large projects into manageable parts.
- Linking payments to the contractor, e.g. 20% on prototype acceptance.
- Coordinating with other projects and dependencies.
- Motivating the team by giving short-term goals.
Milestone chart example
| Milestone | Planned date |
|---|---|
| Project charter signed | Week 0 |
| Requirements approved | Week 4 |
| Design complete | Week 8 |
| Prototype demonstrated | Week 14 |
| System testing complete | Week 20 |
| Go-live | Week 24 |
Weeks: 0 4 8 14 20 24
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(Diamonds show milestones on a Gantt chart.)
Good practice
- Make milestones SMART and tie to acceptance criteria.
- Avoid too many or too few.
- Maintain a milestone list in the project plan.
- Track slipping milestones early.
Example: In a network installation project, "Cabling complete" and "Network tested" are milestones, while "pull cables" is an activity.
✓ Answer checked by Claude Opus 5.5 (high effort)