Understanding Milestones

Introduction

Milestones represent key achievements or deadlines in your plan. They are the backbone of a plan. This page describes what a milestone holds and how you work with one.

What a milestone is

A milestone is named for the event it marks, for example "Customer invoiced" or "Beta testing completed". Unlike a task, it stands for a point in time when something important is achieved or delivered.

What a milestone holds

• Name: the event the milestone marks.
• Owner: the person responsible for meeting it. A milestone has one owner.
• Due date: when you expect to reach the milestone.
• Start date: optional. Set a start date to make the milestone cover a period of work rather than a single day.
• Status: shown by a coloured triangle.
• Notes: comments added to the milestone.
• Actions: the smaller steps needed to reach it. See Capturing Actions.

Status colours

A milestone's status is one of five colours. The default meanings are:

• Green: on track.
• Yellow: minor issue.
• Orange: major issue.
• Red: critical.
• Blue: completed.

Select the legend in the footer to see the meanings for the plan you have open. People who can edit the plan can change the meanings of green, yellow, orange and red. Blue always means completed.

Working with milestones

Changing the status

Select the triangle beside a milestone and choose a colour. Choose blue when it is achieved. The colours show the health of a plan at a glance.

Changing the date

On the Timeline, drag a milestone along the date scale to change its date. For a milestone with a start date, you have three options:

• Drag the start to change when it begins.
• Drag the triangle to change when it ends.
• Drag the middle to move all of it.

Moving a milestone to another workstream

On the Timeline, drag the milestone up or down to another workstream.

Changing the owner

Select the owner's picture or name on the milestone and choose another person. Add someone to the plan first if they are not on it. See Sharing Plans.

Adding notes and deleting

Expand a milestone to add a note with [COMMENT], or to delete it. After you delete a milestone, [UNDELETE] is offered for about three seconds.

Where milestones appear

• The Timeline shows a plan's milestones against a date scale, in lanes.
• The Milestones page lists them in blocks and can organise them by date, status, owner or workstream.
• The Dashboard shows the ones you own.

See Alternative Views for more.

Good practice

• Name milestones for outcomes: "Customer contract signed" rather than "Work on contract".
• Give each milestone one owner.
• Keep milestones to deliverables and key decisions, not routine activities.
• Keep statuses up to date, so the plan stays trusted.