Page 100 - DCAP305_PRINCIPLES_OF_SOFTWARE_ENGINEERING

Principles of Software Engineering

Notes • Identify activities
• Allocate resources
• Create a time-schedule

• Reviewing the budget
• Do a risk analysis

• Set up a meeting schedule
• Project administration
5.1.1 Setting up Milestones

It is a good start to create an overall picture of how the project will be performed before planning
the particulars. In the past there used to be milestones along the roads to tell the distance to
next village. This is also very useful in project planning.
A milestone in a project could be an approved deliverable, an important decision or a market
verification that the project is on the right track. By identifying the milestones in a project and
also identifying their order of appearance, an overall picture of the project could be delivered.
A milestone in a project marks something that has been done or accomplished, and gives guidance
about where you are in the project.

A milestone should have the following criteria’s:
• Everyone should experience them as natural.
• Mark an important control or decision in the project.

• They should be measurable and be able to check.
• There should not be too many of them.
• Appear within reasonable distance.

By this time you can now detect certain natural steps in the project plan. It is easier to review
and follow up a project if you take one step at the time. It is suggested that you have shorter
steps in the beginning of the project when the uncertainty is at worst.
Regarding the method for project planning it does not follow a structured step-by-step work
plan; the team see the project planning as a process which should be easy to use and easy to
understand. Because smaller projects need to have a minimum of project planning administration,
and software projects in particular need to follow a plan that is not thoroughly detailed, we find
their method being proper to investigate.

The method give you space to follow it in detail or just picks out the techniques and processes
that is proper for your project.

How to make a milestone-chart:
1. Gather project members and stakeholders in a room. (This could be done at the kick-off
meeting if the project is relatively small). You will need a large whiteboard.
2. Draw a horizontal arrow at the lower part of the whiteboard, symbolizing time.
3. Divide the diagram into fields, each representing areas like technique, market, project and
economy within the project.
4. Turn the deliverables into milestones and write those down on post-it notes. (e.g. report
ready, prototype ready).

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