Milestones

Milestones The Define Activities process also involves determining milestones to use on the project. Milestones are significant events within the project schedule. They are not work activities, and have no duration. For example, a completed design, customer-imposed due dates for interim deliverables, or a company-required checkpoint, phase gate, or stage gate could be milestones. Initial milestones are docu­ mented in the project charter. The project manager can also insert milestones as checkpoints to help control the project. If a milestone in the schedule is reached and any of the planned work has not been completed, it indicates the project is not progressing as planned. The milestone list is part of the project documents.

When completed, the Define Activities process results in an activity list, which includes all activities required to complete the project, and activity attributes, or details regarding project activities. At this time, known attributes may be limited to the activity name and ID number. As the project progresses, additional

attributes—such as planned completion date, leads and lags, and predecessor and successor activities— may be added.