Add a milestone

Before your project gets rolling, you will probably want to mark its major goals with milestones (milestone: A reference point marking a major event in a project and used to monitor the project's progress. Any task with zero duration is automatically displayed as a milestone; you can also mark any other task of any duration as a milestone.). The quickest way to create a milestone is to add a task (task: An activity that has a beginning and an end. Project plans are made up of tasks.) with no duration to your project plan.

  1. Click View, and then in the Task Views group, click Gantt Chart.

Task Views group on the View tab.

  1. Type the milestone name in the first empty row or pick a task you want to turn into a milestone.
  2. Type 0 in the Duration field, and then press Enter.

The milestone symbol is now part of your Gantt Chart.

Image of milestone symbol on a Gantt Chart

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Add a milestone with a duration

Sometimes a milestone takes time. For example, the approval process at the end of a phase might take a week, so that milestone would need to take place over time like a normal task.

  1. Click View, and then in the Task Views group, click Gantt Chart.

Task Views group on the View tab.

  1. Type the milestone name in the first empty row or pick a task you want to turn into a milestone.
  2. Select the milestone, and then click Task. In the Properties group, click Task Information.

Task Information button image

  1. Click the Advanced tab, and then type the milestone duration in the Duration box.
  2. Check Mark task as milestone, and then click OK.

On the Gantt Chart, the milestone symbol appears on the last day of the task. It doesn’t appear as a bar, even though it has duration.

Image of milestone with duration on a Gantt chart.

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Add an external milestone

Sometimes you might need a milestone to track a task that’s outside the scope of your project.

  • If the milestone depends on a project that is beyond your control, such as software that is being developed by another company, create a milestone using the steps in the previous section. You’ll have to keep an eye on the external task and update it manually.
  • If the milestone is part of a project in your organization, you can track it with a cross-project link.

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More about milestones

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Applies to:
Project Professional 2013, Project Standard 2013