Milestones play an important role in any project. They are useful in clearly articulating what you need to do and what you have accomplished. A milestone is used to indicate important events during the project timeline that are necessary to complete the project. They are also typically used to monitor the progress of the project and the contributions of the members to the project.
Demonstrable Milestones: You need to think carefully about your milestones as they will be used to judge the progress that you have made. All milestones must be demonstrable meaning you should have some artifact that shows that shows it is completed. An external person should be able to view this artifact and confirm that you completed the work related to that milestone.
Here are some common milestones that that are not demonstrable
- Perform a literature search: While this is very important, there is no way to demonstrate that you have done this. A better milestone would be to write a document that summarizes the related work.
- Work on X: Many milestones are in this form. Make sure that there is a concrete end goal.
- Work with this person on X: While it is not always possible, try to subdivide milestones such that they can be accomplished by one person
Another common issue is making your milestones too large. It is much better to subdivide these as much as possible. This is especially important if you miss the milestone; if you have sub-milestones you can point to what was accomplished which makes it easier to assess your progress.