This spreasheet file provides a simple example of a milestone trends chart.

Purpose:
The purpose of this is to see how project milestones change over time, to enable trends to be spotted.
This is particularly useful for people overseeing project managers, because it gives them at a glance a
sense of how the project is progressing against major milestones.

How to enter the data:

The source data sheet contains the list of major project milestones.
When the project plan has been completed, the "planned date" column can be filled out. This is the date at which
the milestones are expected to occur. (A major milestone is one that demonstrates progress against the
main project objectives.)
At each reporting period, the relevant "updated" column is filled out. In this example, the project
is reported on a monthly basis. This would be adjusted if your reporting period is different - I have used this
for projects that were being reported on a daily basis during a crisis situation.

The milestone trends chart:

The milestones are represented by the lines on the chart, going from left to right.
When you have completed the plan and there is only data in the "planned date" column, the milestones will be repr
by points on the planned date column in the chart.
At the end of each reporting period the lines for each milestone extend right.
If the line for a milestone stays level, that means that the milestone date is not changing.
If the line for a milestone moves upwards, that means that the milestone date has changed to a later date.
If the line for a milestone moves downwards, that means that the milestone date has changed to an earlier date.
When a milestone line hits the diagonal line that means that the milestone event has been reached.

You may need to work with the formatting on this a little, depending upon what you put into the source data sheet.
For instance, using monthly reporting periods is a little difficult since there are different days in each month,
which makes it harder to get an exact set of units for the axes.
The diagonal line was created by using a white triangle object.

Interpreting the milestone trends chart:

After several reporting periods you can start to spot trends very easily.
For example, the sample data provided with this spreadsheet showed a situation in which near term milestones
are getting later and later, but the end date of the project remains on target with the planned date.
This implies one of three situations:
1. The project manager is managing near term events and not forecasting out to the end of the project.
The end date may be in jeopardy but the project manager is unaware of this.
2. The project manager knows that the end date cannot be met but does not want to say this!
3. The project manager understands the situation and believes that the end date is still achievable.
If this project was reporting to me, armed with this simple chart I would ask the project manager some pointed
questions to determine which of the above three situations was occuring, and then take appropriate actions if it wa
situation 1 or 2.

One potentially powerful way to use this chart is to track dates of deliverables you are expecting from your client.
This can make it very clear to them visually if they are constantly being late with deliverables.

Michael Cooper, New England Project Services, November 2003

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 Milestone Trends Chart for Project xyz
Forecast milestone completion date

Date of forecast update

MS1 MS2 MS3 MS4 MS5 MS6

1-Sep-03
18-Aug-03
4-Aug-03
21-Jul-03
7-Jul-03
23-Jun-03
9-Jun-03
26-May-03
12-May-03
28-Apr-03
14-Apr-03
31-Mar-03
17-Mar-03
3-Mar-03
17-Feb-03
3-Feb-03
20-Jan-03
6-Jan-03
Milestone Plan (1/6) 13-Jan 21-Jan 28-Jan 4-Feb 11-Feb 18-Feb
MS1 15-Feb-03 15-Feb-03 18-Feb-03 22-Feb-03 22-Feb-03 23-Feb-03 24-Feb-03
MS2 26-Mar-03 26-Mar-03 26-Mar-03 31-Mar-03 31-Mar-03 5-Apr-03 5-Apr-03
MS3 30-Apr-03 30-Apr-03 30-Apr-03 30-Apr-03 30-Apr-03 30-Apr-03 30-Apr-03
MS4 30-Jun-03 30-Jun-03 30-Jun-03 30-Jun-03 30-Jun-03 30-Jun-03 30-Jun-03
MS5 26-Jul-03 26-Jul-03 26-Jul-03 26-Jul-03 26-Jul-03 26-Jul-03 26-Jul-03
MS6 20-Aug-03 20-Aug-03 20-Aug-03 20-Aug-03 20-Aug-03 20-Aug-03 20-Aug-03
25-Feb 4-Mar 11-Mar 18-Mar 25-Mar 1-Apr 8-Apr 15-Apr 22-Apr
24-Feb-03 28-Feb-03
12-Apr-03 12-Apr-03 20-Apr-03 20-Apr-03 20-Apr-03
30-Apr-03 30-Apr-03 6-May-03 6-May-03 6-May-03
30-Jun-03 30-Jun-03 30-Jun-03 30-Jun-03 30-Jun-03
26-Jul-03 26-Jul-03 26-Jul-03 26-Jul-03 26-Jul-03
20-Aug-03 20-Aug-03 20-Aug-03 20-Aug-03 20-Aug-03
29-Apr 6-May 13-May 20-May 27-May 3-Jun 10-Jun 17-Jun 24-Jun 1-Jul
8-Jul 15-Jul 22-Jul 29-Jul 5-Aug 12-Aug 19-Aug 26-Aug 2-Sep