{"id":9777,"date":"2019-11-18T23:55:25","date_gmt":"2019-11-18T23:55:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/totalsynergy.com\/?p=9777"},"modified":"2022-09-19T12:12:21","modified_gmt":"2022-09-19T02:12:21","slug":"the-milestones-on-the-road-to-task-management-synergys-november-update","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/totalsynergy.com\/the-milestones-on-the-road-to-task-management-synergys-november-update\/","title":{"rendered":"The milestones on the road to task management \u2014 Synergy\u2019s November update"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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As part of the\u00a0October product update in 2018<\/a>, we introduced a Gantt-style, drag and drop, chart to our\u00a0forecasting<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0resourcing<\/a>\u00a0module. We call it the project schedule, and it\u2019s pretty neat. Anyway, it just got neater.<\/p>\n

Tasks<\/h3>\n

In the\u00a0November release<\/a>\u00a0we\u2019ve added tasks to the project schedule. You can now expand below a stage to see tasks AND you can set the start and end dates of those tasks under this stage.<\/p>\n

This takes the project program from stage level to scheduling at a task level. What\u2019s the difference to you? Good question. You\u2019re now able to say who’s doing what at any given time during the stage. Your planning can become much more detailed.<\/p>\n

Milestones<\/h3>\n

We also added milestones. You can think of milestones as target date, or actual markings on the road of a project \u2014 where tasks happen over a duration of time, milestones are something you reach, and they tend to be important dates or important points in the schedule.<\/p>\n

Milestones will be things like, “received order from the client” \u2014 because that is a milestone that kicks the project work off. You might have other milestone dates like “80 percent design review” \u2014 because you’ll have some kind of meeting at the point at which you\u2019re 80 percent through your detailed design. A milestone to “submit design to council” would be another example \u2014 due by a particular day.<\/p>\n

The benefit of the milestones is that you can then report on those separately. Because they\u2019re the key project dates, we\u2019ve given you a rather nice report (even if we do say so ourselves).<\/p>\n

On the screen, you can see all of the milestones for your project. It shows you how much time you’ve got \u2014 showing the current date, and then counting down the days until it\u2019s due for you. If it’s overdue, it turns red and tells you how many days you’re late.<\/p>\n

This all makes it very clear what and when the agreed milestones are, and whether you’re hitting them or not. That’s good for a project manager, but it\u2019s also great for the next level of management up. Senior managers can run a report across all of the milestones, across all of the projects and say, for instance, “show me the milestones that are more than a week late\u201d \u2014 because obviously, these are issues that you\u2019ll want to go and talk to somebody about.<\/p>\n

Templates<\/h3>\n

So, tasks and milestones are a nice way to be able to add more granularity to the way you’re managing your projects. We\u2019ve also added all of that into the project templates. That means that when you create a project now, you can set it up like a fully planned project from the template. That means all of those key milestones are already scheduled automatically in the new project \u2014 makes it very easy to set up quickly, very easy to adjust, and very easy to kick off with a very detailed plan.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re really excited about this release. In and of itself, but also because of the updates it\u2019s going to enable in the near-ish future. But that\u2019s all I\u2019ll say about that. Keep watching this space!<\/p>\n

Recommended reading<\/h3>\n