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Milestones. Deadlines
Milestones
Important components of the project which help to control time of task completion
are milestones and deadlines.
Milestone is a task, crowning an important part of the project. Milestones
are indicators of key points of the project. Without reaching them another series
of tasks cannot be started. Milestones are often final tasks of project phases.
On the graphic part of the diagram they are marked by  .
Changing a task into a milestone can be done by the following steps (do not
forget to select the task first!):
- Use Milestone in menu Tasks.
- Call the context menu of the task and use Milestone.
In both cases Milestone command will be marked in menu, indicating
that the given task is a milestone.
- Call dialog Task Information in menu Tasks
or in the task context menu and check option Milestone in
section Info. Closing the dialog, do not forget to press OK,
to save changes.
To remove milestone status from the task, select the command again and the
mark will disappear.
Task: In our example there can be such a task as "Fix the
budget" . In fact, this task splits the project in two parts: planning
phase and completing phase, as before fixing the budget we realized our actions
only on paper and we then switch to their implementation. Let’s give it Milestone
status by one of the mentioned above methods.
Deadlines
Deadline is the last date the task can be completed. During the process
of project completion a necessity can occur to correct time of completion for
some of the tasks. However, postponing of some completion times is extremely
undesirable. For instance, if the completion time for some task has been fixed
in the contact. Or the beginning of the work of the whole team whose members
are involved in other projects depends on the task. Not completing the task
on term in this case may result in very undesirable consequences – fines, canceling
the contract, non-completion of a whole set of projects. If such a task fails
to be completed in time, then instead of postponing the deadline, you better
trying to meet the deadline, using additional means, for instance, by providing
additional resources to it or by relieving the doers of any other work.
To mark such an important task on the project its deadline is specified. At
that, the deadline must not necessarily coincide with the Finish Date – it can
be assigned to a later time. On the project the deadline is marked  .
Assigning the deadline for a task can be done by the following ways (do not
forget to select the task first!):
- Use Deadline in menu Tasks.
- Call the task context menu and use Deadline.
In both cases Deadline command will be marked in menu, indicating
that the deadline has been specified for the task.
Note: the deadline must not necessarily coincide with the Finish Date
of the task it can be assigned later. But setting the deadline which does not
coincide with the task Finish Date, can be done by the third method in Task
Information.
- Call the dialog Task Information in Tasks,
in the task context menu or its graphic representation and mark Deadline
option it in section Dates. Closing the dialog, do not forget
to press OK, to save changes.
To remove the deadline from a task, select the command again and the mark will
disappear.
Task: In our example such critical tasks are those preceding the trip,
as not completing those in time will force the trip itself to be postponed.
Let’s set the deadline for all tasks – August, 20.
Let’s assign the deadline for the task "Buy food" by any
of the described above methods, and for the tasks "Hire a bus to take
people there and back" and "Buy lacking equipment"
via dialog Task Information.
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