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“You have to work on the business first before it works for you.”
In an agile mindset, step-by-step progress is what makes the business grow and develop as per time but all this happens in an agile way. In agile we cannot afford to make mistakes all because of our accelerated process. To achieve the quality of the product at this agile speed we go with dividing the task into smaller milestones. It is always easy to achieve milestones one by one. In agile, milestone helps to mark a significant stage of project development. It helps in getting the vision of competed success and remaining path to go ahead. In SAFe framework, milestones are used more significantly. SAFe has three types of milestone to measure and monitor project evaluation and the risk involved in it.
Types of Milestones
1. PI Milestone
They are used to indicate the evaluation of business and technical hypotheses.In agile and especially in SAFe, the system is built in increment order, further helping to validate the solution viability. PI cadence always provides the required discipline which helps in ensuring periodic availability and evaluation. This milestone also helps in creating time boundaries because of which the less desirable options are skipped. PI measures the progress in objectives. This PI milestone can be used in various SAFe modules like essential and large solution SAFe that are used for solution and system integration and validation.
The system is regularly accessed, evaluated, and measure depending on the nature and type of system built by the stakeholders throughout development. It gives time to make the most important changes instead of popping it at the critical points.
2. Learning Milestone
It helps in validating business and hypothesis opportunities. This helps to fix the customer's needs and generate business values which are the central goals of the projects. At the initial stage, the new solutions and large initiatives are considered as hypotheses, which require conceptualization and validation from the actual market. This involves the learning milestone. Learning milestones can help in : -
Evaluating the new agile product’s market capabilities and finding out if customers are ready to pay for them.
Also, check whether the issues are solved by the targeted users.
Check whether the non-financial accounting measures are available to validate real progress.
Evaluation of viable business model’s availability in support of new features and capabilities.
Learning milestones believes that there are some amount of uncertainties in every business which should be translated into knowledge and business benefits.
3. Fixed Date Milestone
Every agile organization wants to have as minimum possible constraints as it can. In this, the features become more urgent as time moves further closer to its date. Fixed date milestones can be directly connected with program and solution backlog prioritization. Fixed date milestones are represented in the agile release train making it for every stakeholder easy to plan and act accordingly.
This milestone arises for various reasons some of the examples are;
Release dates are controlled by internal and external business concerns.
Organization of trade shows, customer demos, group meetings, etc.
Contractual dates decided for delivery dates of business values.
Benefits of Using Milestone in a Project
Provide an overview of important deadlines
Helps in identifying upcoming bottlenecks and issues beforehand
Used as a tracker for project updates
Helps in an understanding agile team and coaches current stage and upcoming steps of the project
Work as a project calendar to pinpoint and check major events and important tasks
Help in planning of project resources and time allocation
It also provides a chance for team members to celebrate small achievements and boost their confidence. It also motivates the team to move towards further goals.
Examples of Milestone
Delivery of core features
New feature launch
Addition of any new or updating of feature in the project
Completion of business strategy plans
Important events, meetings, or presentation
Starting and completion date of projects
“Direction is more important than speed. We are so busy looking at our speedometer that we forget the milestone.”
Keeping this in mind one must focus on the completion of the milestones tactfully and with quality, the agility of the project will take care of itself without the worry of anyone. But as in agile and SAFe, the milestones and tasks need to be flexible they can be easily converted from task to milestones and vice versa, and various forms to reflect the change that can be done with many available applications and software. But in every case, thoughtful measures make the most meaningful milestone so be thoughtful and ready for change with re-evaluation and referencing the created and set roadmaps and milestones.
About Advance Agility
We, at Advance Agility, are the new-age Agile Coaching, Consulting and IT services company. We enable end-to-end Digital Transformation. Agile execution is integral to our being. We are doing SAFe implementation with small, medium and large organization across the globe. Our vision is to be the leading Agile execution player globally. To keep adding value at every process stage. We are on a mission to empower our clients, move from concept to cash in the shortest sustainable lead time by adopting human centric approach to business agility. Embracing the change is in our DNA. Things that keep us apart are Quicker and Seamless execution with End-to-end gamut of services. Our Global presence and Stellar Track Record give us an edge over our competitor.
Connect with us at advanceagility.com to learn about SAFe and SAFe Implementation. Write to us at contact@advanceagilty.com for any agile training or consulting needs. We are always looking for competent agile trainers as well. So if you are a good trainer or want to become one, do get in touch with us to that we can learn, grow and achieve together.
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