Milestone (project management)

A milestone ( milestone english, colloquially Mark Stein) is an event of particular importance in project management.

Such events are in particular:

• The presence of delivery items ( engl. deliverables ) or intermediate results.
• Inspections, intermediate inspections and audits (reviews).
• Decisions on the further progress of the project.

Milestones mark the beginning of a project phase, the phase of release, or the end of a phase, the phase of completion. Even within a phase of the project milestones can be.

For example, the setting of the foundations requirement for basement walls, the completion of the basement ceiling a milestone for the start of building construction.

• They reduce the risk of mistakes, because they support the monitoring of project progress through project controlling.
• They support an orderly transition between the phases of the project.
• They allow decisions through to project completion and release phase continuous involvement of the client and if applicable, the Project Steering Committee.
• They allow a continuous goal orientation of employees, create a sense of achievement and synchronize the cooperation. Thus, they are also a means of leadership and motivation.

You are realizable and measurable in concrete actions. To this end, the criteria are defined in advance - otherwise the review would not objective but arbitrary. The criteria are often stored in the form of checklists or forms. Milestones are formulated realistic and achievable by the project work.

Milestones are identified in networks and Gantt charts especially.

Milestone trend analysis attempts to derive from the postponement of milestones a forecast for the further progress of the project and especially for the project finish.