Milestone (project management)

These points may signal anchors such as a project start and end date, or a need for external review or input and budget checks.

Some contracts for products include a "milestone fee" that may be paid out when certain points are achieved.

When combined with a scheduling methodology such as program evaluation and review technique or the critical path method, milestones allow project managers to much more accurately determine whether or not the project is on schedule.

By constraining the dates associated with milestones, the critical path can be determined for major schedule intervals in addition to the entire project.

A number of activities, which were planned at the beginning of the project with their individual timelines, are reviewed for their status.