Search Results for: Schedule Milestone

Within the confines of project management, a schedule milestone, also known as a milestone activity, is an event of great significance within the project schedule. See also milestone. This major event may be a number of possible events, both planned and unforeseen by project management. As a result a schedule milestone may or may not be present on the project schedule prior to the point in time where the schedule milestone occurs. A few examples of unforeseen schedule milestones would be: a sudden and disastrous accident halting a major production or construction effort that is a key part of the project, or the failure to complete a major deliverable. In most cases project management uses schedule milestones to: mark the formal end of iteration, indicate the completion of a project phase, validate a project’s progression, justify work already completed, and mark the successful completion of a major deliverable or deliverables. By definition a schedule milestone has no duration; the completion of the schedule milestone itself takes absolutely no time or work. This may not always indicate that the next phase of a project can be immediately begun though. Key schedule milestones may require senior level project management to review project progress up to the schedule milestone in question before authorization to continue with the next phase of the project can be given.

This term is defined in the 3rd edition of the PMBOK but not in the 4th.

When the project team is conducting all of the individual components of the project throughout the project life cycle, it is imperative that the project team leader fully utilizes all means necessary to keep careful track of where each individual component stands. In the process of coordinating and keeping track of all of the different components of a project, the project management team, and specifically the project management team leader, will devise a number of individual schedules, each of which will maintain track of a specific component of element of the project on a smaller, more specified scale. One of the most critical schedules that must be maintained and referred to through the project’s life cycle is that of the milestone schedule. The milestone schedule is a summary level schedule that allows the project team leader to review and identify all of the significant and major project related milestones that may exist in the course of a project, and can be proven helpful in making sure that nothing falls behind schedule of off the radar entirely.

This term is defined in the 3rd and the 4th edition of the PMBOK.

The collection of information for describing and controlling the schedule is called the schedule data.  It includes at least the schedule milestone, schedule activities, activity attributes, and documentation of all identifies assumptions and constraints. In project management, schedule data could also include items such as histograms, cash-flow projections, and order and delivery schedules.

In the project management, the schedule data will be reviewed and updated in the control schedule process. It is updated and compiled into schedule model to reflect actual progress of the project and remaining work to be completed. The scheduling tool and the supporting schedule data are used in conjunction with manual methods or other project management software to perform schedule network analysis to generate an updated project schedule.

The updated project schedule will be generated from the schedule model populated with updated schedule data to reflect the schedule change and manage the project. On the other hand, the resource breakdown structure is a hierarchical representation of resources by the category and type.

Examples of resource categories include labor, material, equipment, and supplies. Resource types may include the skill level, grade level, or other information as appropriate to the project. The resource breakdown structure is useful for organizing and reporting project schedule data with resource utilization information.

This term is defined in the 5th edition of the PMBOK.

The collection of information for describing and controlling the schedule is called the schedule data.  It includes at least the schedule milestones, schedule activities, activity attributes, and documentation of all identifies assumptions and constraints.

In project management, schedule data could also include items such as histograms, cash-flow projections, and order and delivery schedules.  In the project management, the schedule data will be reviewed and updated in the control schedule process. It is updated and compiled into schedule model to reflect actual progress of the project and remaining work to be completed.

The scheduling tool and the supporting schedule data are used in conjunction with manual methods or other project management software to perform schedule network analysis to generate an updated project schedule. The updated project schedule will be generated from the schedule model populated with updated schedule data to reflect the schedule change and manage the project.

On the other hand, the resource breakdown structure is a hierarchical representation of resources by the category and type. Examples of resource categories include labor, material, equipment, and supplies. Resource types may include the skill level, grade level, or other information as appropriate to the project. The resource breakdown structure is useful for organizing and reporting project schedule data with resource utilization information.

This term is defined in the 5th edition of the PMBOK.

A milestone is an important event in a project. It represents a moment in time wherein the team members have achieved an important event for the project. Thus, it should be assigned zero duration. Milestones are crucial in project management as they can add value to the project scheduling.  It allows project managers to determine if their projects are on schedule or not. Simply put, they are used to monitor the progress of the project.

This is the reason why project managers need to create a milestone list. It is a list that identifies all the milestones of the project. It also indicates if a particular milestone is critical which is required by the contract or optional for the project.  Optional milestones are usually based on historical information from a similar project.

It is the responsibility of the project manager to create the milestone list.  Since it is a project management document, it requires the necessary inputs from the project team members. Inputs for this particular project document include the scope baseline, schedule management plan, organizational process assets, and the enterprise environmental factors.

This term is defined in the 5th edition of the PMBOK.