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The Purpose and Benefits of
Milestone-based Thinking
The purpose of the milestone-based
thinking is to choose the right
goals and
objectives and organize
yourself to attain them. A
flexible
milestone-based approach will help you understand, meet, and even
anticipate the
specific needs of your business – all while making the most of your current
technology investments.
Milestone-based thinking
can help you organize your activities and your available
resources into
a logical sequence of steps or stages. In your role as a manager,
milestone-based thinking helps you understand the priorities at each stage
of your company’s or
project development, operations, and growth.
Externally, milestone-based thinking helps you
communicate to potential
partners what you are attempting to do, why it is important, and how each
activity contributes to the
achievement of the overall
goal.
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Milestone Events |
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Milestones |
Brief description of
specific activities required for the Milestone |
Why is this
important? |
Required
resources |
Timing |
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Milestone 1 |
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Milestone 2 |
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Milestone 3
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Milestone X |
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Milestone XX |
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Milestone XXX |
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The Goal Achieved
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NLP
Technology of Achievement: Creating Inevitable Success
→ Set your brain on the milestone-based path
toward achieving your
goal so that
it's working on it all day long.
→
Vividly imagine that you have already
achieved your goal, then walk back and examine the pathway toward your
goal. Notice specific milestones and steps on the pathway you took to get
there, including all those different elements − the resources, the
abilities, the actions, and the people − that led, step-by-step, toward your
goal. Model your
feelings at different milestones on the way.
→ Go back to the present with a new
appreciation for the milestones and steps on the path to your goal...
More
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References:
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Microsoft Visual Studio Enterprise Tools
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Case in Point
Microsoft
Milestone-based Process Model1
Shortcomings of the Traditional Process Models
The traditional Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC) used by many
companies is activity- or task-driven. With variations across
methodologies, the traditional life cycle typically consists of the
distinct phases shown in the following list:
Definition; Analysis;
Design; Construction; Test; Transition and Migration; Production.
The term "phase" implies that each set of tasks must be completed before
the next phase can begin. Typically, different
teams handle each phase
in the life cycle, and each phase must be heavily documented to allow
for a different
team to pick up the next phase. As a result, decisions
freeze early and flexibility is minimized.
While this model provides a useful way to categorize the types of tasks
that occur throughout the development life cycle, it does not recognize
or leverage the characteristics of component-based enterprise
development.
The major problem with the waterfall process model for component-based
development is that it is task-focused rather than
process-oriented. This makes it difficult to make the flexible
decisions and meet the rapidly changing priorities that are vital to
managing an enterprise development project with its multiple components
and heavy emphasis on user interface requirements.
Advantages
and Characteristics of the Milestone-Based Process Model
Overcoming these drawbacks requires a more flexible, iterative,
process-oriented development model. The milestone-based process model is
derived from the product life cycle model proven so successful within
Microsoft Corporation. It encourages thinking about work in terms of
processes rather than tasks. Milestones mark the self-regulation points
of these processes.
The four
characteristics of the milestone-driven model are:
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Milestone-based approach. The
application development process is driven by external and internal
milestones, which are checkpoints to guide the development process.
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Clear ownership and accountability. The
process model connects responsibility for each milestone to the
project team roles.
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Risk-driven scheduling. High
risk components of a project are completed as early as possible.
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Versioned releases. The
concept of versioned releases is an important one throughout the
systems development life cycle because it impacts how expectations
are set and how the entire
project is
planned and
managed.
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