Open-ended projects drift because nobody wrote down what “done” means. A milestone works the other way round: define the outcome and the acceptance criteria first, then plan only the work that meets them. These four stages keep scope, progress and sign-off visible from the first day to the handoff.

Stage 1 — Define done

Goal: Agree the outcome and how it will be accepted.

  1. State the milestone in one sentence: what will be true when it is finished.
  2. Write acceptance criteria that a non-technical owner can check.
  3. List constraints: systems, data, security, budget and deadline.
  4. Write down what is explicitly out of scope.

You finish with: A signed-off milestone brief with acceptance criteria and exclusions.

Stage 2 — Plan the path

Goal: Turn the brief into a sequence of checkable steps.

  1. Break the work into steps that each produce something that can be seen or tested.
  2. Identify risks early: access, dependencies, unknown data, third parties.
  3. Agree how and how often progress is shown.
  4. Name who approves each step and who can change scope.

You finish with: A step plan with risks, a review cadence and named approvers.

Stage 3 — Build and show

Goal: Deliver in visible increments, not in one reveal at the end.

  1. Show working progress at every review, against the acceptance criteria.
  2. Record decisions and changes in one place.
  3. Handle new requests as change requests, with their effect on date and cost.
  4. Test on real data and real workflows as early as possible.

You finish with: Working increments reviewed against the criteria, with a decision log.

Stage 4 — Accept and hand off

Goal: Close the milestone cleanly and leave the team able to run it.

  1. Walk through every acceptance criterion with the owner.
  2. Hand over code, accounts, credentials and documentation to the company.
  3. Train the people who will run or maintain it.
  4. Agree what comes next: support, a follow-on milestone, or nothing.

You finish with: An accepted milestone, full ownership and a documented handoff.

Common pitfalls

  • Starting work before acceptance criteria are agreed.
  • Accepting scope changes without changing date or cost.
  • Showing progress as reports instead of working results.
  • Ending without the company owning the code and accounts.

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