Cesar FiestasTechnical Project Leader| Intuitive ProjectsNewport Beach, Ca, United States
Hello Experts,
When you have a project where travel of some or all resources is a must to an xyz location how do you track this event? as a task or as a milestone or neither option?
What is the best practice to track this event, after all, is very critical for all the resources to arrive to the location where the work will take place.
As always Thanks for your comments! Saving Changes...
Sergio Luis ConteHelping to create solutions for everyone| Worldwide based OrganizationsBuenos Aires, Argentina
Nov 02, 2018 11:17 AM
Replying to Cesar Fiestas
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Sergio,
I hope all is well, so you consider travel as a task or as a milestone?
Task Saving Changes...
Paul HillWarranty Administrator| Haselwood Auto GroupBremerton, WA, United States
Definitely a task. A milestone with regards to scheduling is a zero duration event, unless you are for example marking the end of travel Saving Changes...
Anton OosthuizenSenior Business Analyst / Project Manager| Self EmployedPretoria, Gauteng, South Africa
As mentioned it is a task since it consumes time and cost. A milestone on the other hand does not. The start and/or end of the travel task can be a milestone. Saving Changes...
Drew CraigSr. Agile & Product Coach| VanguardPhiladelphia, Pa, United States
Task. Travel is an enabler for completion of a set of tasks toward a milestone. Saving Changes...
Cesar FiestasTechnical Project Leader| Intuitive ProjectsNewport Beach, Ca, United States
Hello Experts,
I think after reading several of your comments, I think travel is a task and not a milestone and it should be recorded as such. For example in order to complete the survey in Dubai, the engineering team in the US must arrived onsite where the Site Survey is a milestone. Am I correct?
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1 reply by Anton Oosthuizen
Nov 05, 2018 11:29 PM
Anton Oosthuizen
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The site survey would also be a task since it will start once they arrive and continue for a period before ending, thus it is consuming time/cost. The teams arrival in DXB will be a milestone, the completion of the survey would be a milestone. Typically you can think of a milestone where you have achieved something although it can be used to flag the start of something as well. In a race the start and end can be milestones because it is a moment in time. The effort to run between the start and the finish is a task or activity that needs to be completed and it happens over time.
Saving Changes...
Anton OosthuizenSenior Business Analyst / Project Manager| Self EmployedPretoria, Gauteng, South Africa
Nov 05, 2018 11:02 PM
Replying to Cesar Fiestas
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Hello Experts,
I think after reading several of your comments, I think travel is a task and not a milestone and it should be recorded as such. For example in order to complete the survey in Dubai, the engineering team in the US must arrived onsite where the Site Survey is a milestone. Am I correct?
The site survey would also be a task since it will start once they arrive and continue for a period before ending, thus it is consuming time/cost. The teams arrival in DXB will be a milestone, the completion of the survey would be a milestone. Typically you can think of a milestone where you have achieved something although it can be used to flag the start of something as well. In a race the start and end can be milestones because it is a moment in time. The effort to run between the start and the finish is a task or activity that needs to be completed and it happens over time. Saving Changes...
Schedules are a tool, so ask yourself what is the function of having travel on the tool. How do you plan to use it? Do you need to identify when it starts and how it is progressing towards finishing on time, or do you just care if it happened? I can travel to the other side of the world in a day. On a long development schedule one day is a tiny blip on the chart.
A good analogy would be planning a major project review. I might have weeks of preparation leading up to a one day CDR. I need to track that progress to know it will occur on time due to stakeholders flying in from around the world, catering, facilities planning, etc. I could put an 8 hour task on the Tier 0 schedule for the review itself, but what purpose does that serve if I'm not using the program level schedule to track the intraday progress of the CDR? On the other hand, for the CDR itself, I have an agenda with times so that is also a schedule. On that lower tier schedule, I'll have allotted times for each presentation, lunch, overflow, etc. that never appear on the Tier 0 schedule so the CDR is not only a task, it is a series of interrelated tasks. Saving Changes...
Elizabeth HarrinDirector| RebelsGuideToPM.comLondon, England, United Kingdom
If the resource is a person, I would track the activity as a task. If the resource is a thing, I would add a task for 'ship the resource' so that someone takes responsiblity for moving the item and then a milestone that says 'resource arrived on site' with the specific date you require. Saving Changes...
