When Should You Give a Project Milestones?
As I’m sure you’re aware, not every project you do in life is going to be the same. They’ll differ massively depending on what they are, who they’re for, and why you’re doing them. What this means is that there is really no clear answer for when you should give a project its own milestones. It depends on you, and of course the project itself.
The whole point of milestones in a project is to break it up, into smaller bite-sized and sequential tasks, and give you a better estimation with how long it will potentially take to complete. When you start a project, you might have an idea as to how long it Should take to complete, or how long you’d ideally like to successfully complete it. When you create a milestone around this, it gives you a target to hit and a date by which it should be accomplished. This method gives you something to work towards, rather than just doing little bits here and there. With project milestones, it’s much easier to track your progress too. You can clearly see whether your milestone targets were met in time, and if not, you can begin to work out and determine the reason as to why not.
With all that said, you might find yourself creating milestones around the five main elements of project management according to the Project Management Institute. These elements include:
INITIATION – This element looks at providing a basis that the project itself is really worth completing. For example, this could involve getting approval from someone, or working out the overall cost vs. the potential profit that a specific project might make.
PLANNING – Next up, quite simply, is how the project is planned. Depending on the level of complexity of the project, this can be the most time-consuming and thorough stage. With larger projects for more serious situations, like building a house, the planning stage doesn’t just relate to what the project will be about. Things like risk assessments, budgets, resources and people involved will all have to thought of and finalised in this stage. It might be more simple, like scheduling your time to revise and learn the sections of a syllabus to pass an exam.
EXECUTION – The execution stage is the Doing stage. This is when the main goals, the major objectives, or outcomes, and a lot of potential project milestones will be met.
MONITORING – The monitoring stage of project management looks at things that might be barriers, making sure that the risks highlighted in the risk assessment were correct, and that no more risks have become apparent. Making sure that you stay within or under budget. Making sure the resources are correct, including that they’re the right ones, you won’t run out of them, whatever they might be and so on. All of the stages in this process are important and very necessary, however, the monitoring stage, coupled with the execution stage are the most crucial when it comes to project management. The reason being, is that it’s at this point where your project is a success or a failure. The ability at which you complete these two could determine whether you can move forward to the last stage, or go all the way back to square one.
CLOSURE – Finally, when all else is said and done, you can finish the project, and hopefully close it once and for all. If you’re at school, it could be handing in a piece of coursework or passing that exam, in your job it could be signing off on a completed contract, or in your everyday life, it could be finishing building that house.
Understanding these elements might help you discover the more natural places to put your milestones, but it’s not vital. Like I’ve said, milestones will vary on multiple different things so putting them where you think they’re most appropriate is often the best thing to do, because milestones do more than just motivate.