Create a milestone

A milestone is a reference point that marks a major event in a project and is 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.

You can create milestones in your project to represent external tasks. For example, one of your project's tasks requires an application being developed by another company. You can create a milestone with zero duration in your project to represent the completion of that application.

Tip: You can also track external tasks in your project with task dependencies. Project 2010 offers the ability to create cross-project dependencies to track milestones that are associated with external deliverables.

What do you want to do?

Create a milestone

Create a milestone with a duration greater than zero

Create a milestone

1. On the View tab, in the Task Views group, click Gantt Chart.

   

2. Type the name of the new milestone in the Task Name field for the first empty row in the list.

   If you are turning an existing task into a milestone, skip this step.

3. Type 0 in the Duration field of the milestone, and then press ENTER.

   When you type a duration of zero for a task, Project 2010 automatically displays the milestone symbol in the chart section of the Gantt Chart view on that day.

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Create a milestone with a duration greater than zero

Milestones typically have zero duration. However, some milestones may need a duration. For example, your project has an approval milestone at the end of a phase, and you know that the approval process will take a week.

1. On the View tab, in the Task Views group, click Gantt Chart.

   

2. Type the name of the new milestone in the Task Name field for the first empty row in the list.

   If you are turning an existing task into a milestone, skip this step.

3. Select the milestone, and then on the Task tab, in the Properties group, click Task Information.

   

4. In the Task Information dialog box, click the Advanced tab, and then type the milestone duration in the Duration box.

5. Select the Mark task as milestone check box, and then click OK.

   Project 2010 displays the milestone symbol in the Gantt Chart view on the last day of the task.

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