Phases and milestones
Phases divide the project into stages, such as Feasibility, Design, Build and Commissioning. Milestones are the points within those phases the project must reach, and each one says what must be in place by then. Together they make up the project lifecycle, which you manage on the Lifecycle tab.
Phases
Each phase has a name, a colour used across the tabs and exports, and an optional description. How you set its timing depends on the project's Timing mode (in the project's Settings):
- Relative timing (durations): give each phase a Duration (weeks). Phases run one after another.
- Specific dates: give each phase a Planned start and Planned end.
On the Lifecycle tab, choose Edit, then Add Phase. Every activity is assigned to a phase, which is what places its work on the timeline, the Roadmap and the Effort tab.
Milestones
A milestone is a point the project intends to reach: a design review, a design freeze, factory acceptance or practical completion. In edit mode on the Lifecycle tab, choose Add Milestone, then fill in its details:
- Phase: the phase the milestone falls in.
- Deadline: when it falls. In a relative project, set Deadline (% through phase), where 100% is the end of the phase. In a specific dates project, set a Deadline date.
- Acronym: the short label shown on the timeline and the Roadmap. Leave it empty to have one made from the name. A short form in brackets, such as "Feasibility Gate (FG)", is used if the name has one.
- Description: what the milestone represents.
Gates
A gate is a milestone that needs a go/no-go decision before the project can continue. Turn on Gate in the milestone's details, then choose its Approval authority: a party, such as the Project Director, or a governance body, such as the Project Board.
On the timeline, gates are diamonds and plain milestones are circles. If you turn Gate off, the approval authority is hidden but kept, so it comes back if you turn the gate on again. Only gates count towards a role's or a governance body's approval responsibilities, which appear on the Staff Guide and in exports.
Criteria: what a milestone must achieve
A milestone's criteria say what must be true when it's reached. Open the milestone and add them in its Criteria section. There are two kinds:
- Product criteria, added with Add product…: a product reaching a state. Set the Expected % complete, whether it's expected Issued (or Built, for physical, software and service products), an optional Version such as Rev B, and a Criterion describing what it must show, such as "Factory Accepted".
- Targets, added with Add target: anything else the milestone must achieve, with a Target statement and an optional Metric, such as "Availability of 98% over a 30-day trial".
Each criterion can have an Owner: the role answerable for meeting it.
Product criteria also check your plan. A product expected finished at a milestone must be produced in that milestone's phase or earlier. A product expected part done must have work on it starting by then. If not, the milestone shows a warning on the Roadmap and the Health Check lists it.
Recording what happened
When a milestone is reached, open it on the Lifecycle tab, set Status to Reached and enter the Reached on date. Then record each criterion's Result (Met or Not met) with its Evidence, such as meeting minutes or a document revision.
Each milestone's achievement is worked out from its criteria:
| Achievement | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Met | Every criterion is met |
| Partly met | Some criteria are met |
| Not met | Every criterion has been assessed and none is met |
| Not assessed | No criteria, or none assessed yet |
The Milestones table on the Lifecycle tab shows each milestone's status and achievement. With open criteria shows only those still waiting on a criterion.
On the Roadmap
Milestones appear on the Roadmap as lines across their phase, drawn just after the work they expect. Select a milestone to highlight the products it expects, or a product to highlight the milestones that expect it. A milestone with no phase isn't drawn and is listed under Issues instead.
Health Check
These checks look at phases and milestones (see Health Check):
- All phases have duration
- All milestones have deadline, and Milestones have unambiguous deadlines (flags a milestone with both a date and a percentage, which can happen if you change the timing mode)
- Products expected at milestones are produced by then
- Reached milestones met their criteria
- Milestones are marked reached by their date (a suggestion only)