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Milestones, project phases and dependencies help you quickly identify if a project is on track or if it is at risk because of its dependency on another project.
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- Milestones
- Project Phases
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Dependencies
- Creating and Deleting Milestone Dependencies in the Portfolio Designer
- Creating and Deleting Milestone Dependencies in the Project Details
- Displaying Milestones and Dependencies in a Project
- Displaying Only Dependent Projects
- Displaying Milestones and Dependencies in a Program
- Displaying Milestones and Dependencies in the Roadmap View
Milestones
Users need to have the Add, Change and Delete Milestones and Milestone Dependencies right.
Add milestones to your projects and visualize different project phases and dependencies on other projects.
Adding, Editing and Deleting Milestones
You can add, edit, and delete milestones both in the Portfolio Designer and in the Project Details. You can see all project milestones, including milestone names and dates, in the Roadmap view. You can save it as a custom view or export it as a PNG.
Adding Milestones
To add a milestone to a project in the Portfolio Designer, select the project in the Gantt chart and hover over the bar. Next, click the blue circle with the three dots above the bar and select Add Milestone:
Enter a Milestone Name, the Project Phase and the Date:
When selecting a project phase, the start of the project phase will be the previous milestone or the project start (if there is no previous milestone). The project phase will end with the milestone you've just created.
Editing Milestones
To edit a milestone, select the project in the Gantt chart and hover over the bar. Next, click the blue circle with the three dots above the bar and select Edit Milestone:
To move a milestone, hold down the left mouse button on the milestone and move it to the desired position. Or, hover over the milestone, click the three dots in the blue circle and select Edit Milestone, and then change the date.
Deleting Milestones
To delete a milestone, select Delete Milestone.
Extending or Shortening Projects at a Milestone
Hover over a milestone and click the three dots in the blue circle to open the milestone context menu. The context menu offers several options for extending and shortening projects at the milestone.
Extending Projects
In the milestone context menu, there are two options for extending a project at the milestone:
You can either extend the project with all allocations and the project phase (if there is one) at the milestone. Or you can insert a project break right after the milestone and extend the project duration by moving the following allocations and project phases to the future.
Find out more in the Extending Projects and Allocations article.
Shortening Projects
In the milestone context menu, there are two options for shortening a project at the milestone:
You can either shorten the entire project at the milestone and delete all following allocations, milestones and project phases. Or you can remove a section of the project right before the milestone and shorten the allocations and the project phase (if there is one).
Find out more in the Shortening Projects and Allocations article.
Milestone Date
Milestones occur at the end of a day. The above-mentioned options are always executed at the end of the day of the milestone date.
Splitting Allocations at a Milestone
When you work with milestones and project phases, it may be useful to split allocations at the milestones. This allows you to enter different allocation values for each project phase.
In the toolbar under Allocation Mode, select Flexible. Hover over the respective milestone, click the three dots in the blue circle and select Split Allocations at Milestone:
When you have split the project allocations at each milestone, the result will look like this:
Displaying Milestone Hints
Hover over a milestone to display a hint showing its name, date and project phase:
Displaying Milestone Names in the Gantt Chart
To see all milestone names at a glance, you can display them in the Gantt chart.
Hover over the project name and click the three dot icon. Next, select Show All Milestone Names in the context menu .
To hide the milestone names, either select the Hide All Milestone Names in the context menu or deselect the active project.
Project Phases
Users need to have the Manage Project Fields, Advanced and Project Settings right.
Defining Project Phases
Project phase names and colors are defined under Manage > Advanced.
See the Project Phases section of the Manage Advanced article for more details.
Displaying Project Phase Colors
You can display the project phase colors in the Gantt chart of the Portfolio Designer as well as in the Roadmap. In the Portfolio Designer, select Settings in the toolbar, and under Projects select the Project Phases color scheme. In the Roadmap, click Gantt Color Scheme and select Project Phase in the drop down menu.
To display a guide to these colors in each relevant view, click the palette icon in the Information Panel.
Dependencies
Users need to have the Add, Change and Delete Milestones and Milestone Dependencies right.
Creating and Deleting Milestone Dependencies in the Portfolio Designer
Dependencies between projects are defined via dependencies between milestones of different projects in Meisterplan.
Such a dependency is considered met when the milestone at the start of the displayed arrow lies before the milestone at the arrow tip on the timeline.
Dependencies between milestones of the same project cannot be defined in Meisterplan.
Proceed as follows to create a dependency between two milestones in the Portfolio Designer:
- Hover over a milestone. A little right arrow is displayed next to the milestone.
- Hover over the right arrow until the mouse pointer is displayed as a hand icon.
- Click the right arrow, press the mouse button and hold it. An arrow representing the new dependency will show up. All milestones available as targets for the new dependency will be highlighted.
- Holding the mouse button, drag the arrow to the milestone that is the desired target for the dependency.
- Release the mouse button to create the dependency. It will be displayed when you hover or select either of the two projects it connects.
- To delete a dependency, right-click the dependency line to open the associated context menu and select Delete Dependency.
Creating and Deleting Milestone Dependencies in the Project Details
You can also add dependencies in the Project Details. To do so, click Add Dependency in the Dependencies section of the Project Details.
You can add Milestones that are targets (i.e. required by other milestones) or sources (require other milestones). The relationship to the other milestones and the related project or milestone will be displayed in the table.
You can also delete a milestone by hovering over it and selecting the trash icon.
Displaying Milestones and Dependencies in a Project
Hover over a project or select it to display all of its milestones and their dependencies.
The arrow indicating the dependency will turn red if the dependency is unmet. Some examples for this are:
- If a dependent milestone precedes the first milestone on the timeline. For example, a software development project that is building a component for another project gets delayed. The project that needs the component cannot begin until the initial development project has delivered the relevant component.
- If the first milestone in the dependency is below the Cut-Off Line. For example, your team does not have capacity to take on a corporate design project. This project is a requirement for a website refresh project and therefore, your team cannot progress with either project.
Any milestone with unfulfilled dependencies will always be displayed in red even when the project isn't selected or hovered over as long as the milestone is part of a project above the Cut-Off Line.
If a dependent milestone is below the Cut-Off Line, the arrow will never be displayed in red because its project is not part of the current plan.
Displaying Only Dependent Projects
Click the three dots after the project's name and select the Show Only Dependent Projects to hide all projects except for those that either depend on the selected project or that the selected project depends on.
All projects that are not connected to the selected project via inbound or outbound dependencies will be hidden:
Remove the selection or select the Show All Projects context menu option for the active project to show all projects again.
Displaying Milestones and Dependencies in a Program
Milestones belonging to projects in a program above the cut-off line will also be displayed in red when they have unfulfilled dependencies, even when the program is collapsed and not hovered over or selected.
Hover over a collapsed program or select it to display all of its milestones with dependencies pointing to or from projects outside the program.
Expand a program and select it to display all of its milestones and dependencies.
Displaying Milestones and Dependencies in the Roadmap View
Milestones and dependencies for individual projects can be seen in the Roadmap view by hovering or clicking on the corresponding bars. You can see milestones for all projects without or with milestone names and dates by selecting Display Milestones > All or Display Milestones > All Detailed, respectively. You can hide all milestones by selecting Display Milestones > None.
Filtering Milestones in the Roadmap View
In the Roadmap, you also have the possibility to filter milestones based on if they contribute to unmet dependencies, are in a specific project phase, or happen within a specific period of time.
See the article Roadmap (View) for more details.