What Is a Milestone?

Written by Coursera Staff • Updated on

Milestones help keep projects on track by measuring progress in a project schedule.

[Featured Image]: Project Manager, sitting at a desk, going over the milestone schedule for the latest project with a team member.

A project milestone is a marker or checkpoint that indicates a major goal, event, or task within a project’s lifecycle. Typically, project milestones are used to mark the beginning or end of the phases within a project, which allows stakeholders to project plan effectively and assess a project’s progress as it’s being undertaken. Milestones are often used as a scheduling tool to identify when a major goal should be accomplished and to plan the steps, resources, and actions required to accomplish it. 

The use of milestones in project management yields many benefits. In addition to providing a method for charting a path to completing a project, project milestones also allow stakeholders to measure project progress, clarify the project phase in which they’re working, and identify potential bottleneck issues. A milestone schedule provides stakeholders with an overview of the major events within a project without overwhelming them with all the details of the tasks required to complete it. This overview can be critical to providing a big-picture view of the project and ensuring everyone is on the same page.

If you’re ready to start developing familiarity with the concepts, tools, and techniques used in project management, enroll in the Project Management Specialization from the University of Colorado Boulder. You’ll have the opportunity to gain experience in scheduling, project scoping, project management milestones, and more in as little as two months. Upon completion, you’ll have earned a shareable career certificate and should have the basis for a comprehensive final project plan.

What is an example of a project milestone?

Project milestones mark the beginning and end of a project’s phases. However, they can also prove helpful in indicating any notable date, task, event, or deliverable that teams must achieve. Some common examples of project milestones include: 

  • Reaching a specific number of sales (e.g., 500 sales) 

  • The roll-out date for a product or service, such as a software update or product launch 

  • A particular deadline (e.g., the last day of a fiscal quarter)

  • A major achievement, such as completing a phase within a product’s development

 

Learn more about project milestones from project management experts at Google:

How to define a project milestone

Milestones in projects can be adjusted as necessary. Based on project specifications, your team may target anywhere from two milestones to more than 10. As a general rule, define milestones around important occurrences in your project.

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