Review the project’s accomplishments and results at selected project milestones.

Refer to the Establish the Budget and Schedule specific practice in the Project Planning process area for more information about identifying major milestones.

Milestones are pre-planned events or points in time at which a thorough review of status is conducted to understand how well stakeholder requirements are being met. (If the project includes a developmental milestone, then the review is conducted to ensure that the assumptions and requirements associated with that milestone are being met.) Milestones can be associated with the overall project or a particular service type or instance. Milestones can thus be event based or calendar based.

Milestone reviews are planned during project planning and are typically formal reviews.

Progress reviews and milestone reviews need not be held separately. A single review can address the intent of both. For example, a single pre-planned review can evaluate progress, issues, and performance up through a planned time period (or milestone) against the plan’s expectations.

Depending on the project, “project startup” and “project close-out” could be phases covered by milestone reviews.

Example Work Products

1.    Documented milestone review results

Subpractices

1.    Conduct milestone reviews with relevant stakeholders at meaningful points in the project’s schedule, such as the completion of selected phases.

Managers, staff, customers, end users, suppliers, and other relevant stakeholders are included in milestone reviews as appropriate.

2.    Review commitments, the plan, status, and risks of the project.

3.    Identify and document significant issues and their impacts.

4.    Document results of the review, action items, and decisions.

5.    Track action items to closure.