For AI agents: a documentation index is available at /llms.txt. A markdown version of this page is available at /guide/cloud/views/milestones.md.
Milestones
Mark the delivery points that matter and track everything hanging off them.
A milestone is a dated point a project must reach — a release, a client demo, a regulatory deadline. Tasks are assigned to milestones so you can see what is outstanding for each.
Available on every tier, including the Community Edition.
#What makes a good milestone
Something a stakeholder would recognise: "Beta launch", "Client sign-off".
A milestone without a date is a category.
You can say yes or no. "Improve performance" is not a milestone.
Three to six per project. Twenty milestones is a task list.
#Milestone or sprint?
They solve different problems and are often confused:
| Milestone | Sprint |
|---|---|
| A deliverable | A time box |
| Date set by the outside world | Fixed length, repeating |
| Can span several sprints | Always the same duration |
| "v2.0 ships 14 March" | "Sprint 7, two weeks" |
Teams running Scrum use both: sprints for cadence, milestones for the commitments the business made.
#Setting them up
Start from commitments
List what you have already promised, and to whom. Those are your milestones.
Give each a date and an owner
An unowned milestone slips quietly.
Assign tasks
Every task that must be done for that delivery. This is the part that makes a milestone useful — it turns a date into a scope.
Look at what's left
The gap between remaining work and remaining time is your actual status.
#Tracking
The milestone view shows completion, what is outstanding and what is at risk. Milestones also appear as markers on the Gantt chart.
Milestone progress can mislead
"80% of tasks complete" says little if the remaining 20% is the hard part. Look at which tasks are outstanding, not just how many.
#When one is going to slip
Deal with it early — the options narrow as the date approaches.
Say so as soon as you know
A month's warning gives options. A day's warning gives excuses.
Separate must-have from nice-to-have
Most milestones have both. Cutting scope is usually better than moving the date.
Check the critical path
On Premium, the critical path tells you which delays actually matter.
Move the date if you must — once
A milestone that moves three times has stopped meaning anything.
#Closing one
When it is delivered, close it. Then look back:
- Which tasks were missed at planning time?
- Which estimates were furthest out?
- What slipped, and why?
That is the input that makes the next milestone's estimate better. Feed it into your project templates.