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Milestone charts are one method to display your schedule information. A milestone

chart tracks the scheduled dates and actual completion dates for the major milestones.
Table 5.1 shows an example milestone chart. As the project manager, you should pay
close attention to milestone dates because they are also a communication trigger.
Stakeholders need to be informed when major deliverables are completed or when a
project has successfully moved to a new phase. If these dates are not met, you need to

communicate the current status, the plans to bring the project back on track, and the
new milestone date.

TABLE 5.1 A sample milestone chart

Milestone Scheduled Actual Scheduled Actual

Start Date Start Date Completion Date Completion
Date

Sign-off on scope 12/18 12/18 12/18 12/18
statement

Sign-off on 2/02 2/02 2/02 2/02
contract

Acceptance of 3/05 3/05 5/31 6/07
deliverable 1

Acceptance of 3/15 4/01 6/30 7/15
deliverable 2

Testing completed 7/01 7/16 7/31 8/16
Project acceptance 8/10 8/20 8/10 8/20
and sign-off

Displaying the Schedule

Project management software is a tool that can save you a lot of time in creating your
schedule. You can enter tasks, durations, and/or start and end dates; assign resources;

and generate a graphical representation of the project. The most common way to
display project schedules is a Gantt chart.

Gantt charts can show milestones, deliverables, and all the activities of the project
including their durations, start and end dates, and the resources assigned to the task.
Gantt charts typically display the tasks using a horizontal bar chart format across a
timeline. I know project managers who have constructed Gantt charts for small
projects using only a spreadsheet. Figure 5.5 shows a sample Gantt chart.

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