In today’s blog post, we will talk about “project milestones” and their importance in project management.
Let’s start our discussion with a simple real-world example.
Imagine you are in 1980 when there was no GPS and you want to take a 13-hour journey by car from Chicago to New York. On this journey, you will pass through Indiana, Ohio, and Pennsylvania to reach New York.
You know that there is a chance that you may get lost and the journey will be delayed.
However, you must reach New York in 13 hours. Therefore you plan the journey and set targets as shown below:
- Chicago to Indiana – 2 hours
- Indiana to Ohio – 2 hours
- Ohio to Pennsylvania – 5 hours
- Restroom Break – 1 hour
- Pennsylvania to New York – 3 hours
In this example, if the journey is a project, then these places are milestones. The project starts in Chicago and ends in New York, and the duration is 13 hours. If you don’t set your milestones as above and you reached your first milestone after a delay of one hour, you will not reach New York in 13 hours.
