Project Planning: Identify Milestones, Assumptions, and Tasks

The next step in building a project plan is to identify the milestones, assumptions, and core tasks needed to accomplish the project. When combined, they provide a little more detail of the project beyond the big idea without confusing the big picture with too many details.

Milestones

Milestones are goals that help track overall progress for any project. Each milestone signifies forward movement, helps build continued momentum by your team, and shows progress to staff and other leaders. Identify around 2-10 milestones for your project that can be celebrated as they are achieved. Be careful not to declare tasks as milestones by using this simple test: if a milestone is something you’d assign to someone to get done, it is a task not a milestone.

Assumptions

Assumptions are the things that your project require to happen (or not happen) to ensure the success of your big idea. It may be that you require specific funding, some specific such as skills or tools, or a specific deadline to be achieved. Each assumption must be tested regularly and evaluated against your milestones and tasks. Consider what should happen if an assumption is false – does the project end, get delayed, or require more money – and jot them down.

Tasks

Identify the major tasks for each milestone. These are tasks that are essential to milestone completion and project success. This helps with planning and assigning individual tasks during the course of the project, as well as when determining the project strawman that we’ll tackle next. You may want to estimate the overall time it will take to accomplish each of these tasks, including time needed for research, doing the task, and training others as needed.

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