How to Set Milestones in Microsoft Project 2016
In the video tutorial below, we will demonstrate the process of how to set milestones, which are useful in denoting significant events in a project. Also we will give you a realistic summary of the key points in a project using Microsoft 2016. We will also show you how to filter the timeline to show all the milestones.
Video Transcript
In this section, we’re going to look at Milestones. Milestones are used to denote significant points or events in a project. Usually, milestone tasks have zero duration. In Project 2016 does allow milestones with non-zero durations as well.
Milestones are used for a number of different purposes. Amongst the most important ones are as a way of providing a management snapshot of progress on a project.
There is, for example, a particular report called a Milestone Report. Here, you can just view the key milestones in the project. Also, get a summary of where you are in terms of those milestones. That’s why it gives you a good idea of general progress on the project.
They can also be used to show you what’s coming up next. Let say, what’s happening over the next week, or the next month or the next few days.
Very often milestones are associated with a payment schedule of some sort. For example, when a particular point is reached in a project there may be a payment to make. Now, what I’m going to do with the wedding project is to take some of the existing tasks. Next, let’s turn them into milestones.
Then, I may well introduce one or two new milestones as I go through.
Before I start, note what I’ve done with the project at this stage. This is version 03 of the project. I have collapsed all of the summary tasks.
Note, that when I do this, you can’t see all of the dependencies. For instance, there is a dependency between a task on wedding day and the setting of the wedding date.
But, because the wedding day is collapsed you can’t see that link. If I expand Wedding day, that link is now visible. Note, the link from Book wedding venue, task 40, up to Set wedding date.
When Wedding day as a summary task is collapsed, you can no longer see that link.
This just emphasizes the point! When you’re looking at a project with some summary task collapse, you need to be careful at what you’re interpreting. Why? Because some elements of the project may have become invisible, even though they’re actually quite significant.
Now, one very important aspect of Milestones is that generally speaking, although I should say there is an exception. But, generally speaking, because a milestone is a task of zero duration. It is assumed that there is little or no work associated with the milestone itself.
If I take task 4 here, Set wedding date, if that doesn’t actually involve any significant amount of work I could make it into a milestone. But, what I’m actually going to do on this occasion, is to insert specifically a milestone which indicates when that task has been completed.
So, I’m going to select the task below it which is basically a blank row. And then, on the Task Tab in the Insert Group, I’m going to say Insert Task.
Now, that task I’m going to rename to Wedding date set. That’s basically a statement that something has happened. It isn’t something to do itself.
In the duration for that task, I’m going to change it to zero days which will make it into a milestone. The default notation, the default symbol in a Gantt Chart for a milestone is a diamond.
So, now I’m going to select Set wedding date. Select the Wedding date set. And then, link them in the usual way. Now, I have my first Milestone in my project.
I’m also going to set milestones that indicate when the venues have been booked. Also, the information about the venue for the wedding and the venue for the reception.
So let’s start with the reception venue. So, I want something to indicate that task 21 has been completed. I can do the same that I did just now, Insert Task. But, there’s also an option within the Insert Group on the Task Tab of Insert Milestone.
So, that automatically gives me a task of zero duration. Let’s change the name. Once again put in the linkage and do the same down here for the wedding venue.
And then, I’ve just got a very few other milestones to add. I’m going to add one to indicate that all of the attire has been ordered, one to indicate that the guest list has been finalized and finally that the wedding is registered and licensed.
And then, I have just one more thing to do and that is that I’m going to turn the wedding date itself into a milestone. But I don’t want to reduce its duration to zero days because there will be things to do on the wedding day itself.
So what I’m going to do is to double click on the wedding day and I’m going to use on the Advanced Tab this little checkbox in the bottom left-hand corner, Mark task as a milestone.
Click on OK. The task is now marked as a Milestone. But as you can see its duration is a day. And there will be work for people to do on that day. Let’s hope they don’t think about it too much like work. But as far as Microsoft Project is concerned it is work.
So there we are. We have some milestones in our project. I’m going to take a look at those in just a moment. Before we do I don’t actually need the Timeline at the moment.
And the project is beginning to take up more and more space. So let’s save a bit of space by hiding the Timeline. Can you remember how to do that?
You go to the View Tab and you can just switch off the Timeline. So, uncheck that checkbox in Split View and we now have a little bit more space to see the project.
If you only wanted to see the milestones you can use one of the features of the View Tab which is to use a Filter. See the Data Group on the View Tab. There is a Filter control with a dropdown there. One of the options on the dropdown is the Milestones. When I select that, I will only see the project milestones.
And that gives you some idea of how useful milestones can be in terms of setting out the key points in the project over the course of its duration.
Now, one other point that’s clear here is that we still have a lot of work to do on this project. Because, for instance, we still haven’t worked out when the wedding day is going to be. It’s still right near the beginning of the project.
Now you might be a little bit frustrated by this and thinking well why don’t we sort out the wedding date? Well, the reason that we don’t is that we still have some very key factors to take into account before we can work out when the wedding date can be.
We’re going to be moving onto those factors after we’ve done Exercise 03. Once we’ve done those we’ll be in a better position to actually pin down a wedding day and then we’ll see again how useful these milestones can be in terms of giving us a realistic summary of the key points in the project.
Now if you have applied a filter as I have here I can un-apply it by clicking on that dropdown again and saying No Filter.
That’s the end of this section. Exercise 03 is the next one so please join me for that.
Simon Calder
Chris “Simon” Calder was working as a Project Manager in IT for one of Los Angeles’ most prestigious cultural institutions, LACMA.He taught himself to use Microsoft Project from a giant textbook and hated every moment of it. Online learning was in its infancy then, but he spotted an opportunity and made an online MS Project course - the rest, as they say, is history!
