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Understand when and how to use a milestone schedule on a project.  Learn how to create a milestone schedule.

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Quick reference

Milestone Schedule

The Milestone Chart is a project schedule tool that shows items of significant risk or importance to the project.

When to use

Milestone Charts are for communicating risk.  The Milestone Chart is the primary schedule chart used in Management Reviews.  If a project must integrate with other projects, the Milestone Chart of each project should be shared with the others, so that each project is aware of issues that could impact the integration points.  I don’t recommend using a Milestone Chart for small one-person projects that are not technically complex.  The Milestone Chart does not add any value to project management in those cases and just becomes a waste of time.

Instructions

If the project has many stakeholders or team members, a Milestone Chart helps everyone to understand the significant risk events on the project. 

  1. At the time of initial project planning, the milestones for project phases are identified and the phase timing is set.  Project phases represent a major set of project deliverables and the start and completion of those items is a significant event on the project.
  2. Within each phase, when the phase is being planned in detail, significant events and risk reduction points are treated as milestones and added to the Milestone Chart.
  • Project deliverable completions are milestones since they represent a significant event in the success of the project. Ex: completion of software development
  • Strategic project decisions are milestones since they represent a significant event in the success of the project. Ex: selection of building architect
  • Completion of major high risk activities are milestones since they represent a significant reduction in overall project risk. Ex: completion of qualification test
  • Major project Management Reviews are milestones since management makes a determination on project progress or redirection.  Ex: monthly project reviews

The Milestone Chart is maintained as an active project management tool and is used in Management Reviews and often included in stakeholder communications.

Hints & tips

  • Milestones should be meaningful events to stakeholders.  Include their strategic “wins.”  If they don’t care about an event but should, use the Milestone Chart to help them understand.
  • When creating a Milestone Chart with project management software, don’t assign any resource effort to the Milestone.  Instead, create a task(s) of Milestone preparation effort.  A Milestone is treated as a “zero-time” event in most software,  assigning effort to an event with no time often screws up the cost calculations.
  • Have at least one significant project milestone each month, not counting management reviews.  This helps the stakeholders understand whether or not the project is making progress.
  • Try to describe your milestones in a “pass/fail” manner so it is clear whether or not the milestone was successfully passed.
  • Milestone: “A milestone is a significant point or event in a project, program or portfolio.”  PMBOK®Guide

This definition is taken from the Glossary of the Project Management Institute, A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, (PMBOK®Guide) – Sixth Edition, Project Management Institute, Inc., 2017.

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  • 00:00 Hi, I'm Ray Sheen.
  • 00:01 Let's talk about project schedule planning using the tool, the milestone chart.
  • 00:02 The milestone chart is used to track and
  • 00:09 communicate project risk.
  • 00:14 It gives us a risk-based view of the project schedule.
  • 00:17 The Project Management Body of Knowledge, the PMBOK Guide defines milestones
  • 00:22 as a significant point or event in a project, program, or portfolio.
  • 00:27 A milestone is normally used to indicate risk decision points or
  • 00:31 events that will change the project risk profile.
  • 00:35 At the milestone, the project team and
  • 00:37 stakeholders need to focus on the risk event and take action if required.
  • 00:42 The milestone chart shows these events on a timeline,
  • 00:46 which I will illustrate on the next slide.
  • 00:48 I use the milestone chart to make certain that I don't overlook
  • 00:52 key events in a complex program.
  • 00:54 I also use it as my primary reporting tool with senior management.
  • 00:59 On the milestone days, we have something to talk about.
  • 01:02 In between those days, the project team has no new news.
  • 01:06 Let's look at some examples.
  • 01:09 This is the pipeline view of a milestone chart.
  • 01:12 As you can see, we have all the milestones going across the top, like a pipeline,
  • 01:17 and all the milestones shown when they are scheduled to occur in each month.
  • 01:22 The other view is a calendar view.
  • 01:24 The milestones are identical on both views.
  • 01:26 In the calendar view, each milestone is listed down the side and
  • 01:30 then the date is shown in the adjoining calendar.
  • 01:33 There are several recommended steps to create a milestone chart.
  • 01:37 Step one, aggregate all your project deliverables into the appropriate phases.
  • 01:42 If you use a project management methodology, this has, probably,
  • 01:46 already been done.
  • 01:47 Once you have the deliverables in phases, set a duration on the calendar for
  • 01:52 each phase.
  • 01:52 Now, set your milestones.
  • 01:54 Each phase start and endpoint is a milestone,
  • 01:57 since they represent decision events with respect to project deliverables.
  • 02:01 Missing those dates will likely result in missing the project end date.
  • 02:05 Some of the major deliverables may be scheduled to complete at the end of
  • 02:09 the phase.
  • 02:10 But some may be scheduled for completion in the middle of a phase.
  • 02:14 Show the major deliverable as a milestone, since they are a good indicator of project
  • 02:19 progress, and since the stakeholders, typically, are concerned about them.
  • 02:23 There may be other key project decisions that should be milestones, because of
  • 02:27 their impact on the project and project results, but they are not deliverables.
  • 02:32 Include those as milestones. For example,
  • 02:33 you may need to make a decision to select a key supplier for the project.
  • 02:39 The supplier selection is not a deliverable, but picking the correct
  • 02:43 supplier in a timely fashion will impact many other deliverables.
  • 02:47 Supplier selection should be on your milestone chart.
  • 02:51 Some hints and tips when using milestone charts.
  • 02:55 Make sure the milestones are meaningful to the stakeholders.
  • 02:58 You will be reporting on the status of these items to them, make it relevant.
  • 03:03 Milestones should be events.
  • 03:06 The milestone is a point in time, not all the work leading up to that point.
  • 03:10 Put the work and other tasks that are supporting the milestone using
  • 03:14 the deliverables deployment technique.
  • 03:16 The milestone itself should be a pass or fail condition,
  • 03:21 a yes or no answer, a selection of x over y.
  • 03:24 Finally, if possible, put at least one milestone in each month.
  • 03:28 That way, you will have something significant to report each month and
  • 03:31 can show you're making progress.
  • 03:33 The milestone chart is the best schedule chart to keep both your team and
  • 03:34 stakeholders focused on risk reduction and project progress.

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