Add a Milestone

Milestones are used to indicate important achievements, completion of all tasks and work packages for a deliverable, completion of phases, and so on. Each milestone gives a measure of the time required to complete the stage marked by it. Milestones break phases in a project into time segments, which aid project managers in planning, scheduling, and executing each phase.  

You can add milestones to your schedule and mark important stages in each phase, completion of a phase, etc. This helps you keep track of the progress of the stages and phases and take necessary measures to complete them as scheduled. Tracking each milestone cumulatively contributes to the timely completion of the whole project. Each milestone is to be assigned to the responsible contractor for effective tracking.

The project dashboards also provide a heads-up on the upcoming milestones and the remaining days and tasks. This helps the project managers to analyze the tasks' progress and take necessary measures to achieve the successive milestones as planned and complete the project on time. The scheduler allows you to insert different types of milestones at key points within the project timeline to mark significant events, transitions, or deliverables. There are three milestone types available:

1. Start Milestone - Marks the beginning of a phase or activity, such as a project kick-off or Notice to Proceed.

• Can be linked as a predecessor to tasks using a Start-to-Start (SS) dependency.
• Useful for initiating a chain of tasks that start simultaneously with or after a key event.

2. Finish Milestone - Indicates the completion of a phase, major activity, or a deliverable point.

• Typically linked as a successor to relevant tasks using a Finish-to-Finish (FF) relationship.
• Helps track the conclusion of grouped activities or stages.

3. Standard Milestone - A general milestone used to mark any significant achievement, transition, or event within the project.

• Can be linked as either a predecessor or successor to tasks using Finish-to-Start (FS) or Finish-to-Finish (FF) relationships, depending on the scheduling logic.

These milestones are valuable for tracking progress, setting project checkpoints, and aligning dependencies across different phases of the schedule.

To add a milestone

• Right-click on the row below which you want to insert a milestone.

Note: Milestones can only be added beneath task items created directly in the grid—not under tasks imported from the WBS tree.

• Hover over ‘Add’ in the context-sensitive menu and select the desired milestone type (Start Milestone, Finish Milestone, or Standard Milestone).

A new row gets inserted with a label indicating the milestone type in the ‘Task Name’ column, the same WBS code prefix as the parent task. By default, milestones have zero duration and inherit the end date of the preceding task they're linked to. They are typically self-assigned and cannot be assigned to other contractors.

• Double-click inside the ‘Task Name’ cell to edit and enter a custom label for the milestone.
• Set dependencies, if required, to establish logical connections with related tasks and the timelines as required.