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- Hey thanks for checking out "Coffee With Brett."
I'm sitting here sipping on this coffee,
thinking about a question that I do get from folks
from time to time and it's a basic one,
but I understand the confusion.
And the question is what is a milestone
or sometimes the question or the variation
of that question is how do I know if something
on my plan should be listed as a milestone and not a task?
So yeah, pretty basic stuff.
But that doesn't mean that it's not meaningful.
Actually, this one's really meaningful.
And I wanna have a little bit of fun with it.
So let's dig in.
So formally a milestone in project management
is a marker in a project that signifies a change
or a stage in development.
So milestones can be pretty powerful in project management
because they actually show key events
and they map forward movement in your project plan
from those events.
So I wanna build on that little map metaphor,
just for a second here.
So I like to hike.
I like to get outside, get some fresh air,
climb up a mountain, or maybe walk around a creek.
But when I'm out on a trail, I'm gonna say,
I typically don't know where I am
or maybe I know where I am,
but maybe I don't know where I'm going.
So I'll use a map or better yet,
if the trail is a good one,
there'll be blazes to help guide me through the trail.
And those blazes come in a few different forms.
They can be, you know, painted spots on trees, posts,
markers that sometimes even list mileage,
they can be flags, etchings.
They can be cairns, which are these kind of
little rock piles that hikers leave as markers
and there are a lot of different ways
to find your way through a trail.
Here's the thing though, all those things I just listed,
they're kinda like milestones, right?
They tell me where I am on my hike,
where I am on the planet
and that gives me a sense of progress, you know,
where I'm headed next and an overall sense of
just how I'm doing on that hike.
So let's say that we come up on a blaze and my daughter,
who's 10 years old, she's just not feeling the hike anymore
and she just wants to go back home.
It's happened, trust me.
And I'm sure it's happened to you.
You know, if we're at a blaze that's basically
75% of the way through the trail,
I can tell her how much further we have to go
and what would happen if we were to turn around.
And obviously if we are at 75%,
if we're on a loop, we're not turning back.
So she's got 25% of the way to go until we're done, right?
So we'd probably stop for a little break,
have some water, maybe grab a snack and then just carry on.
And of course, she'll keep asking me
how much further there is to go
and that's when I tell her, you know,
look for the next blaze.
All right so you see where I'm going with this, right?
No, I'm not going to Joshua Tree.
I wish I was going to Joshua Tree hiking right now.
What I'm saying is your plan is your map
and your milestones are your blazes
that tell you where you are and what's next.
And milestones can come in different forms,
just like blazes do, right?
Your milestones can be a number of things.
I think the most obvious being your project
start and end dates, but they could also be deliverables,
approvals on those deliverables,
big milestones or big events, essentially,
I think of project milestones as key turning points
or decision points that marks
specific progress on your project.
Maybe even one that would cause project issues
if someone were to kind of turn back on it
or be late with it, or maybe it's immovable,
like an all company meeting or a major event.
You know those types of things.
You get it and I'm sure that you can name
a bunch of milestones that happen on your projects,
but still it can get confusing.
In that case, I'd suggest you ask yourself
these questions that are on screen.
Essentially, if it's a delivery, I'd call it a milestone.
If it's a task leading up to that delivery,
it's a task, right?
If you answer yes to the rest of the questions on screen,
then yes, it's a milestone.
So when you're setting up your plan in TeamGantt,
click on add milestone, key it in and schedule
that little yellow diamond on your Gantt chart.
That'll be your blaze to get everyone
to the next step on your project.
So hey, that was pretty quick.
I have a lot of coffee left,
but that's all I have on milestones for now.
Aside from an article that's on our blog
called "How to Use Milestones in Project Management."
Check it out to get a more depth,
in-depth look at milestones.
You know, what they are, how to use them and even better,
how you can make them in TeamGantt.
I'm gonna go finish my coffee and complete the task
in my plan to film "Coffee With Brett."
And I can actually check off that milestone
when we publish the episode.
All right, I'll stop now. I promise.
Thanks again for joining me.
If you've got questions about milestones, sprints, plans
or anything else related to project management
or TeamGantt, reach out and leave a comment below.
And if you wanna see future episodes, and other content
that we're creating a TeamGantt,
subscribe to our YouTube channel and check us out on social.
See you next time.
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