Effective Use of Milestones to Manage Projects and Communicate with Management
Summary: A project manager has two fundamental purposes. First is to effectively coordinate the activities of her/his project to finish it on time, on budget, and to the customer’s satisfaction. Secondly, and often more importantly, is to keep her/his boss understanding that the first purpose is being done. The tool of milestones is a major part of accomplishing both of these objectives.
Webster defines milestone as:
1. a stone or pillar set up to show the distance in miles to or from a specified place
2. a significant or important event in history, in the career of a person, etc.
While the second definition approaches the project management concept of a milestone, it stops well short of showing the power of this tool to the manager.
The Project Management Institute (PMI®) defines milestone as:
A significant point or event in the project where “event” is defined as something that happens, an occurrence, an outcome.
To better put the term into the context of managing projects we turn the International Institute for Learning, a leading project management training company. Eric Uyttewaal, their vice president for Microsoft Project Certification says:
A milestone is an event with a zero-duration. A milestone is an important point in time, often an evaluation point. It can be a date on which a deliverable has to be ready or a meeting in which Go/No Go decisions are made.
Uyttewaal’s definition comes closer to identifying the power of this tool to the project manager. Milestones are not idle points someone picks in a project. Rather, they are the key linchpins which form the foundation for viewing the project. At a high-level, one can quickly scan the status of the milestones and have a relatively valid view of the project and its likelihood of meeting its goals. As Uyttewaal says, it is a point when something “has to be ready” or there are consequences to the project.
Michael Agnes, Editor in Chief. Webster’s New World College Dictionary, 4th ed. Cleveland: Wiley Publishing, Inc., 2002, p 913.
Project Management Institute. A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide), Third Edition. Newtown Square: PMI, 2004, p.364. (“PMBOK®” and “PMI” are registered marks of the Project Management Institute, Four Campus Boulevard, Newtown Square, PA, 19073 USA.)
Eric Uyttewaal, Dynamic Scheduling, Boca Raton FL: J Ross Publishing, 2003, p 659.
Subject Matter Expert: Walter R. Bowman, PMP®, PMI® Fellow
Walter Bowman is the Executive Director of the PMCentersUSA. He has forty years of experience in project and executive management of high technology and business projects in industry and academia. His experience spans placing cameras on the moon, building and modifying nuclear power plants, process control system design and construction, engineering services, software system development and implementation, and development and administration of educational programs. Formerly, he held the position of Assistant Director of Continuing Education at a Pittsburgh area college where he developed a graduate curriculum in project management. An active member of the Project Management Institute (PMI), Walter is a certified Project Management Professional, a former member of PMI's Board of Directors and a past president of the PMI Educational Foundation.
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