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Milestones, project phases and dependencies help you identify in time if a project is on track and if it is at risk because of its dependency on another project.
- Milestones
- Adding, Editing and Deleting Milestones
- Splitting or Stopping a Project at a Milestone
- Inserting or Extending Allocations at a Milestone
- Displaying Milestone Hints
- Displaying Milestone Names in the Gantt Chart
- Project Phases
- Dependencies
Milestones
Users need to have the Add, Change and Delete Milestones and Milestone Dependencies right.
Add milestones to your projects and and visualize different project phases and dependencies on other projects. For each milestone, add a name, a project phase and a date.
Adding, Editing and Deleting Milestones
To add a milestone to a project in the Portfolio Designer, follow these steps:
Step 1: Right-click on the desired date on the project bar and select Add Milestone:
Step 2: Enter a Milestone Name. If you want to name the milestone the same as the project phase, skip this step and select a project phase in the next step. The milestone name will default to the project phase name.
Step 3 (Optional): Select a Project Phase. The selected project phase begins with the previous milestone or the project start and ends with this milestone.
To edit a milestone, right-click the milestone 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, right-click the milestone, select Edit Milestone, and change the milestone date.
To delete a milestone, select the option Delete Milestone.
Please note that you may also view and edit milestones in the project details, if the milestone section has been configured in the project settings:
For details about this, see the Milestones section of the Viewing and Editing Projects article.
Inserting or Extending Allocations at a Milestone
Right-click a milestone to open the context menu. You can insert zero allocations after the milestone or extend existing allocations before it.
Find out more in the Extending Projects with or without Allocations article.
Splitting or Stopping a Project at a Milestone
To split or stop a project at a milestone, open the context menu by right-clicking the milestone, then select the desired option:
Select Split at Milestone to split the project at the date of the milestone. The milestone will remain at the end of the project segment before the split.
Select Stop at Milestone... to stop the project at the date of the milestone. Any other milestones, financial events and allocations after the milestone will be removed from the project.
Milestone Date
Milestones lie at the end of a day. The above-mentioned options are always executed at the end of the day of the milestone date.
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
To display project phase colors in the Gantt chart, open Settings in the Portfolio Designer toolbar and under Projects select the Project Phases color scheme.
Dependencies
Users need to have the Add, Change and Delete Milestones and Milestone Dependencies right.
Creating and Deleting Milestone Dependencies
Dependencies between projects are defined via dependencies between milestones of different projects in Meisterplan.
Such a dependency is considered satisfied 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.
- 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.
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 cannot be fulfilled. 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
Right click a project and select the Show Only Dependent Projects context menu option 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.