Project Milestones – User Guide

The Project Milestones feature allows teams to manage key phases of each project. Each milestone contains schedule details, progress tracking, and automatic staff notifications. Milestones are selected from a predefined set of options and can be tracked and updated as the project progresses.

This guide explains how to:

• Add and configure project milestones
• Understand the background automation and logic
• Track hours and progress automatically
• Receive milestone alerts and notifications

1. Where to Find Project Milestones

Once you open a project, go to the Project milestones tab. There, you will see:

• The list of already existing milestones
• A green Add button to create a new milestone

Each milestone includes:

• A predefined milestone type (e.g., Golive, Design Complete)
• Start and End Dates (the end date is auto-calculated)
• Optional description and dependency fields
• Live progress and time tracking fields

2. Adding a Milestone – Step-by-Step

1. Click the Add button in the Project Milestones tab
2. In the Milestone section:
   • Select a predefined milestone from the dropdown
   • Optionally, add a summary or comments
3. In the Schedule section:
   • Pick a Start date (must be a valid working day)
   • Enter the number of Workdays needed
   • Optionally add Additional days (to account for expected delays or holidays)
4. The system automatically calculates the End date
5. Optionally fill in:
   • Roadblocks or risks
   • Dependent on another milestone
   • Estimated hours for time tracking
6. Click Add to save and trigger background logic

3. What Happens Automatically (Behind the Scenes)

When you create or edit a milestone, several important checks and automations run in the background to ensure correctness and consistency across the project timeline.

a. Validation Logic

• You cannot enter a negative value for Workdays duration or Additional days.
• If you try to select a non-working day (e.g. weekend or holiday) as a start date, the system will block you and display a message to pick a valid working day.
• This ensures the timeline is based on real calendar availability.

b. Target Date Calculation

You don’t set the end date manually. The system calculates it automatically using:

• Start date + Workdays duration + Additional days

It uses the company’s official work calendar, so weekends and public holidays are skipped in the calculation.

c. Automatic Status Updates

Depending on the calculated end date, the milestone status is assigned automatically as:

• Pending – if the milestone doesn’t have valid dates yet
• On Time – if the end date is today or in the future
• Delayed – if the milestone’s end date has passed

You don’t need to manually change statuses. They are managed by the system whenever dates are changed.

d. Automatic Staff Assignment

Each milestone automatically generates a list of employees involved in its execution. These people are identified by the system using the project’s setup. The logic includes:

• The Project Manager assigned to the project
• Two QA Reviewers (if both are present)
• The Front Office Architect
• The Senior Lead Designer
• The Department Manager of the Project Manager
• All active employees in the PMO department (matching name “Project and Resource Management”)

This group is saved in the background and used to send milestone notifications (e.g. when marked as Completed).

e. Progress and Hours Calculation

If any tasks are linked to the milestone, the system will automatically calculate:

• Total Estimated Hours – the sum of estimated time from all tasks
• Total Spent Hours – based on logged actual effort
• Progress % – calculated as (Spent / Estimated) × 100, rounded to two decimals
• Remaining Hours – estimated minus spent, always shown as non-negative

These numbers are live and always kept in sync with the underlying task data.

4. Milestone–Task Connection and Shifting Logic

Milestones are not just standalone dates—they affect real project activities. If you change the start or end date of a milestone, the system will automatically update the tasks linked to it so that your entire timeline stays synchronized.

The logic respects the working calendar and covers the following cases:

• Case 1 – Start Date Set for the First Time: If a milestone previously had no start date and you now add one, the system will:
  • Look at the earliest task start date
  • Calculate the working-day difference
  • Shift all tasks forward or backward accordingly
• Case 2 – Start Date Changed: If the start date is modified later, the same logic applies. Tasks are shifted based on the number of working days between the old and new date.
• Case 3 – End Date Changed Only: If the start date remains the same but the end date (target date) is updated, the system only shifts the task end timestamps.

All date calculations use the official work calendar, meaning tasks are always adjusted to valid working days (never moved to weekends or holidays).

5. Dependencies Between Milestones

Some milestones may be dependent on others. For example, Phase 2 may not be allowed to start until Phase 1 is completed.

To handle this, you can set a milestone to be dependent on a previous one using the “Dependent on” field when creating or editing a milestone.

If the base milestone is shifted, the dependent one is also automatically shifted to preserve the logical flow of phases. This automation works in both directions—start and end dates are adjusted based on the linked phase's dates.

6. Completing a Milestone

When a milestone reaches completion (either manually or through task progress), it is marked with status Completed.

The system will then automatically:

• Update the milestone’s status field internally
• Send an email notification to everyone involved:
  • Project Manager
  • QA reviewers
  • Front architect
  • Senior designer
  • PMO team
  • Department Manager

This ensures that everyone important is informed of the milestone’s completion and can take follow-up actions if needed.

7. Daily Automation

To ensure milestone statuses always reflect reality, the system runs a background automation every morning. This task requires no user input and works silently in the background.

It performs the following actions:

• Scans all milestones across active projects
• Identifies milestones whose target date has already passed
• If they are not already marked as Completed, their status is changed to Delayed

Additionally, this daily job can be configured (internally by the system administrator) to send out email alerts to the relevant roles or project managers, notifying them about delayed milestones.

This helps keep project progress on track, even if no one is manually checking each milestone every day.

8. Summary

• Project Milestones are selected from a predefined list and assigned per project.
• Users set the start date, and the system calculates the rest based on working days.
• Milestone progress and time tracking are updated automatically as tasks are updated.
• Key people (PM, QA, Architect, etc.) are auto-assigned to each milestone and notified accordingly.
• Changing milestone dates shifts the linked tasks in the calendar automatically.
• Dependencies between milestones are respected—changing one will shift the other.
• Daily system automations keep milestone statuses current and can send alerts about delays.

This approach reduces manual work, prevents timeline conflicts, and ensures project stakeholders are always informed and aligned.