Key Highlights

• Milestones represent verifiable deliverables within a project, marking that a meaningful portion of the work has been completed. They sit above task lists in the data hierarchy.
• When creating a milestone, the Flag setting (internal vs. external) controls visibility. Internal milestones are visible only to your team; external milestones are visible to client users as well.
• The "Start After" and "Duration" fields on a milestone are required. They define when the milestone is expected to begin (relative to project creation) and how long it should take.
• Completing all tasks inside a milestone does not automatically update the milestone status to complete. That must be changed manually, though a workflow rule can be created to automate this (covered in Day 4).
• Task lists within a milestone can be associated from existing ones, cloned from other templates or projects, or created from scratch. Ordering milestones before exiting the view keeps everything organized.

Key Terms

• Flag (Internal/External) — A milestone setting that controls whether it is visible only to internal project users or also to client users through the client portal.
• Start After — A required milestone field that specifies how many days after project creation the milestone is expected to begin.
• Duration — A required milestone field that defines how many days the milestone is expected to take from start to completion.

Common Gotchas

• Milestone completion is not automatic. Even when all associated tasks are closed, the milestone status remains unchanged until someone manually updates it (or a workflow rule handles it). Failing to update milestone statuses creates inaccurate reporting.
• The start after and duration fields are calculated relative to project creation, not to calendar dates. Make sure your milestone timing is realistic and aligns with your project's overall start and end dates.
• When creating a milestone inside a project template, task lists from other projects or templates can accidentally be cloned into the wrong milestone if you are not careful about which one you have open.

Reflection Question

For a type of project your team runs regularly, what would be the two or three most meaningful milestones you would want to track, and what deliverable would mark each one as complete?