Milestones In Project Management

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It is common that projects begin with a plan, including time and cost expectations, whether or not the plan is significant enough to have a project manager. No company wants to enter into a project completely blind. Furthermore, even plans that are highly detailed and monitored, ordinarily do get out of scope, and require more stringent controls as the project moves forward.
Project managers are continually seeking new and better control techniques to cope with such complexities, masses of data, and tight deadlines that are set forth at the initiation of a project (Kerzner, 2013). Tools have been developed over the years to address such situations, allowing for resolutions of issues, mid-project. Variables that can cause project delays and
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When milestones are not defined properly, projects may still continue, although the true status may be unknown. In order to determine if poorly defined milestones are problematic for a particular project, Kerzner (2013) suggests reviewing the project using a schedule variance calculation method, such as percent complete, a part of the earned value method (EVM). Percent complete is particularly useful when milestones are not able to be identified, as it gives management a concrete number, expressed as a percentage, of the value earned compared to the budget (Kerzner, 2013). This is a mid-project status check, that allows for further action to be taken, if necessary. If there is a project delay occurring, management can now re-baseline the project, forecasting the completion of any remaining milestones, and allowing for determination of reasonableness to complete the entire project (Avalon & Foster, …show more content…
Upon determination of continued change requests occurring, especially late in a project’s lifecycle, a project manager should put a halt to such changes, ensuring that the project can be completed as initially expected, and implementing new change processes. Recommendations include: keeping project tasks separate from additional requests, implementing a change approval process and keeping a change log, and keeping very open lines of communication with all stakeholders (Katcherovski, 2010). Using these methods will ensure that when changes are integrated into the project, the timeline and budget can accommodate the

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