About Milestones

Milestones are defined in a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) for a project.

When that project is added to a model version as a governing project, Configuration Managers can specify the discipline for each milestone. The discipline determines which milestone track that milestone is associated with. For example, a model version could have a milestone named concept freeze that occurs during the design process (discipline). Instead of using a date or part status to determine when a prototype can be used (its effectivity), the effectivity can be based on the milestone.

For example, a model version revision could have these milestones.

• Kickoff
• Prototype
• Concept Freeze
• Design
• Styling

You can then use these milestones to determine the usage of prototype parts. For example, a prototype part could be used from the kickoff to the concept freeze phase, and the formal part could be used in the design to styling phases.

For a model, you can define multiple model version revisions. Each model version revision can have a governing project to manage a WBS that defines all the phases, gates, tasks, and milestones required to manage the lifecycle of that revision. A Configuration Manager defines which disciplines a milestone can be associated with.

Milestone tracks let Configuration Managers aggregate configuration milestones for model versions and models based on disciplines. When you assign a governing project to a model version, the milestones defined in that project can be assigned to disciplines, which become milestone tracks. For example, some milestones could be defined for the manufacturing discipline and others for the engineering discipline resulting in an engineering milestone track and a manufacturing milestone track.

Milestones without a discipline assigned do not show on any milestone track and cannot be used to define effectivity.

A milestone track cannot be shared among different model version revisions. Milestones are specific to the project where they are defined on the WBS. You can only define one project as the governing project for a model version, although other projects can be connected to the model version as roadmap projects.

Configuration Managers can publish the milestone track for a model version to its model. When a model includes multiple model version revisions, the model's milestone tracks includes all of the tracks from all of the model version revisions. After the milestone track has been published, the milestones can be used to define effectivity for model versions, features, or parts.

Typically, the discipline for a milestone does not change unless the wrong one was accidentally chosen. However, after the model version has published its milestone track to its model, you CANNOT change the discipline for a milestone.

When defining effectivity for a design or part, you could choose a date after which that object becomes effective. However, whenever the schedule changes, you would then need to edit the effectivity to reflect those changes. The number of parts or designs you work with could make it a challenging task to keep the effectivity in sync with the actual development or manufacturing process.

As an alternative, you can base the effectivity on a milestone. Then, when the schedule slips, you update the milestone and then any effectivity based on that milestone is automatically updated. A project must be defined as the governing project for a model version to use the milestones to define effectivity for any model version components (parts, features, and so on).