Creating a Milestone or Submilestone for an Initiative

Prerequisites

You have specified a start date and target end date for the initiative associated with the new milestone or submilestone.

Procedure

  1. In the Initiatives Summary, select the initiative.
  2. If necessary, filter the list to find the appropriate initiative.
  3. Click the Milestones subtab.
  4. Click New to display the New Milestone or Submilestone dialog box.
  5. Enter the required data to create the milestone or submilestone as follows, and click Next after you complete each section:

    General Information Field

    Description

    Name

    Specifies the name of the milestone or submilestone.

    Description

    Specifies information about this milestone or submilestone.

    Owner

    Select the owner of the milestone or submilestone and drag it to the text box.

    The owner is the user who is responsible for managing the milestone activities. An owner ensures that the stakeholders follow through on their tasks and updates the initiatives regularly.

    Team

    Select users from the list and drag them to the list of team members. If necessary, add members using the Add pushbutton.

    Author

    The Author box is read-only. It shows your user name as you are the user creating the milestone or submilestone.

    Importance

    Select the level of importance of this milestone or submilestone to meet the initiative.

    Change This Milestone to a Submilestone of

    By default, this is created as a milestone. To create it as a submilestone instead, select Change This Milestone to a Submilestone of and then select the milestone that is the parent of this submilestone from the dropdown list.

    Schedule and Status Fields

    Description

    Start

    Click the Calendar button to display a calendar where you specify the month, day, and year on which to start this milestone or submilestone.

    The start date must be on or after the start date of the initiative.

    Target End

    Click the Calendar button and specify the target end date for this milestone or submilestone similar to the way you selected the start date.

    The target end date must be on or before the target date of the initiative.

    Actual End

    Click the Calendar button and specify the actual end date similar to the way you selected the start date. When you first create the milestone or submilestone, this information is unknown.

    Completion

    Type a number that represents the percentage that this milestone or submilestone is complete. If there is no progress on this milestone or submilestone yet, enter 0. You cannot leave this field blank.

    Rule-Based status

    Override status

    Specify how the milestone's schedule status indicator is colored:

    • To color the milestone by comparing the actual end date and target end date according to certain rules, select Rule Based Status. For more information, see Milestone and Submilestone Schedule Status.

    • To specify a status of your choice and override the rule-based status for milestones, select Override Status and then select a status from the dropdown list.