Using milestones to track progress

Tracking project progress is part of a project manager’s job. Gantt charts aren’t always the best way to report progress–they provide too much detail for busy leaders. Using milestone charts are better for reporting progress. Here are my recommendations.

• In your project schedule, create at least 2 milestones per reporting period. Capture dates the milestones were completed and share the rationale for early or late completions. The milestones don’t have to be significant events, just tangible partial or full deliverable completions. If necessary, break down longer tasks into shorter ones to allow for these milestones.
• Don’t abandon the Gantt chart! Manage your schedule and share details with a Gantt chart. It’s your best management tool. Use it whenever detailed tracking information is requested.
• Create “super milestones” for major project events. Identify significant events with milestones in bold or capital letters. Use these to share high level progress. Continually track planned dates, and revised projections for completion of super milestones to show overall progress.
• Update your milestones as the project progresses. As task completion actual dates can vary your schedule, ensure you continue to have 2 milestones per reporting period. Add new milestones if necessary. Also, add or revise dates for all your milestones as any project change requests are approved and added to your schedule.

Tracking progress isn’t the traditional way to apply milestones, but they create two levels of project tracking detail with minimal additional work. Share your intent to use milestones for tracking with leaders, especially if they have only seen milestones used for significant events.

To learn more see the “Learn to use milestones” movie in my course Project Management Foundations.

ProjectManager.com goes into more detail about what you need to track project progress. Check out Project Tracker: The Ultimate Guide for another take.