The list is a separate document that goes stale
Someone retypes six dates into a slide before each owner meeting. By the next meeting the schedule has moved and the slide has not.
Milestones
Construction milestone schedule: the handful of dates an owner needs
Owners and boards do not read every activity. They want the handful of dates that mark the project, such as the permit, the structure, the enclosure and substantial completion, and whether each one is holding. Here is a sensible milestone list, how to set those milestones in a Fidrel schedule so they stay tied to the work, and how to give an owner a view that shows only them.
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Why a milestone list is harder than it looks
Milestones that are not tied to any work
A date such as enclosure complete sits in a table with no link to the activities behind it, so when the roofing slips nobody sees that the milestone moved with it.
Too many milestones to mean anything
When every activity ends with a milestone, the list has fifty entries and the board stops reading it. A short list is the point.
A short list that owners recognize
Most owners can follow six to ten milestones: permit issued, site mobilized, foundations complete, structure complete, enclosure complete, major systems energized, substantial completion and owner occupancy. Pick the ones that decide a decision, such as a payment, a hiring or a move, and leave the rest in the detailed schedule. Fidrel builds the plan in several levels with activities and milestones, so the detail can stay in the schedule behind the milestone while the owner reads the milestone list in front.
Scheduling
Milestones that move with the work
Because a milestone is an item in the plan with links to the activities before it, it follows them. A finish-to-start link from an ordinary activity releases the next one on the following working day, while a link from a milestone releases it on the milestone’s own day, since a milestone takes no time. The critical path highlights the activities with no float, so you can see which of the activities behind a milestone actually decide it.
How to set and show milestones in Fidrel
Step 1
Add a milestone to the plan
Right-click the chart on the day the milestone falls and choose New milestone here, or use the milestone button in the toolbar. A milestone has a date and no duration, and you give it a name and a responsible person.
Step 2
Link it to the work that decides it
Open the milestone and add Dependencies. Point the predecessors at the last activities of the phase, so that the milestone moves when they move. A link from a milestone releases its successor on the milestone’s own day.
Step 3
Show only the milestones
Under Quick filters choose Milestones. The chart and the list keep only the milestones, and the Project metrics count them. Select the rows and use Copy to paste the dates, with their statuses, into an e-mail or a report.
Step 4
Save a baseline and watch the variance
Choose Save baseline once the milestone dates are agreed. The schedule’s end date then shows its Variance in days, and each activity bar carries a thin baseline bar under it for comparison.
Giving the owner the short view
The Milestones quick filter is the owner’s view: the same schedule, narrowed to the dates that matter. Use Collapse all to show only the top level of the plan, or the Milestones filter to show only the milestones. When the owner needs a document, the schedule exports to PDF, Excel, CSV, PNG and SVG and prints. For only the milestones, select their rows and use Copy, which pastes tab-separated text.
What a milestone schedule in Fidrel does not do
Fidrel has no separate milestone report; the Milestones filter narrows the one schedule, and the PDF, Excel, CSV, PNG and SVG exports hold only the milestones it leaves. A milestone in Fidrel is a date in the plan and nothing more: no payment, contract milestone or notice is attached to it. Only people who may edit the schedule can add or move a milestone; everyone else reads it.
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Right-click the chart on the day it falls and choose New milestone here, or use the milestone button in the toolbar. Name it, give it a responsible person and link it to the activities that decide it.
As few as the owner can read in a minute, commonly six to ten. Keep the rest of the dates as activities in the detailed schedule.
Yes, with the Milestones quick filter, which keeps the milestones in the chart and the list. With the Milestones filter on, the exports hold only the milestones; the JSON file stays the whole schedule.
Yes, if you linked it. A milestone with predecessor links moves forward when its predecessors do, and moving a predecessor earlier does not pull the milestone earlier by itself.
Save a baseline when the dates are agreed. The schedule’s end date then shows its variance in days, and each bar has a baseline bar under it so you can compare the dates by eye.
People who may edit the schedule, which means the project’s administrators. Other participants read the schedule.