Hello,

Please help on the below:

The project objective is the complete remodel of a four-piece master bathroom (toilet, double-sink, shower, tub). The bathroom already had all of these components, so the plumbing is in the walls and the floor and can be reused. But the room needs to be gutted, recycled or trashed, and everything including flooring and cabinets replaced with brand new materials. For purposes of this process, don't worry about the layout of the room...just consider the steps that would be required to complete such a project.

Think of yourself as the project manager and general contractor...you, yourself, however, are not doing any of the actual work. You will have an electrician, a plumber, a cabinetry/finish carpenter, a tiler, a painter, and an interior designer to complete the project. You may have additional workers if you deem necessary. You don't need to show your use of these workers (resources) in what you submit for this discussion...just keep them in mind to help you with the details. Your job for this brainstorming session is to identify the planning and tasks that will take place in order to complete the master bath remodel project.

While this 8-minute video is of a significantly smaller project, it can help you with ideas if you aren't sure how to get started:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIRHrPnPmp4

1. List (one per line) as many task names as you can think of for this project. Be as detailed as possible. Trust me...it isn't possible for you to be too detailed!

2. Remember that task names are short, individual items representing individual steps to complete within a whole project. Use task name wording as described in our text.

3. Number each of your task names sequentially, with the list in the best chronological order you can come up with...even if some of the tasks will occur simultaneously.

4. Most of your tasks will be "regular tasks." They do not need to be identified as "regular."

5. Identify "conclusion" tasks with (milestone), like "Planning complete (milestone)." You won't provide this in an actual project, but here I need to be able to tell if you can distinguish milestones from other tasks, and if you can phrase the milestone task name correctly.

6. Identify "heading" tasks with (summary task), like "Demo phase (summary task)," and per the descriptions in our text.

7. Provide an additional research to help with your accurate understanding of summary and milestone tasks as needed

ADDIDIONAL INFORMATION ABOUT MILESTONE:

What is a Milestone?

We encounter milestones in all aspects of our lives, as an individual striving to achieve our life goals, as an employee working to advance an organization's mission, and as a member of the human race trying to expand our collective knowledge and understanding about the world and beyond. Astronaut Neil Armstrong summed up the concept of a milestone perfectly as he stepped onto the lunar surface and enthusiastically declared, "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." Milestones are the small steps that lead to the ultimate goal whether it be developing of new product or service or advancing the exploration of space to the far reaches of the universe.

In its basic form, a milestone is an important event marked on a timeline and recognized when successfully reached. Milestones are the building blocks for the project's schedule and often create forward momentum to propel the project along to completion. They can also be used effectively as primary checkpoints to see how well your project is doing and whether the project is on schedule and on budget.

Guidelines for Setting Milestones

When embarking on project milestone planning, you will first need to provide a work breakdown structure to get an overview of all the tasks in a manageable outline or diagram. With this overview in hand begin to look for opportunities to setup milestones around the completion of key tasks and activities. Try to visualize a timeline of the important events that will advance the project to the next level. For example, in NASA's "Race to the Moon"Links to an external site. that began with President Kennedy's pledge in 1961 to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade, there were several significant milestones achieved before the Apollo 11 mission, including the successful missions of the Ranger series of unmanned probes that photographed, studied, and soft landed on the Moon. When selecting milestones be conscience of these parameters:

• Frequency - As a project manager, you may be tempted to overuse milestones as a motivation tool to keep the team moving along the ladder to reach the surface of success, but don't fall into the trap of labeling every task completion as a milestone. In turn, don't adopt the other extreme approach by ignoring or not recognizing significant and relevant events as milestones particularly at junctions of the critical path. A good compromise is to consistently designate important deliverables as milestones.
• Timing - Milestones that are spaced too far apart will not have the benefit of the momentum derived from motivating team members by recognizing their major achievements. However, when milestones, appropriately represented as diamonds in MS Project, are placed too closely together they quickly lose their luster and distinctiveness. As a rule of thumb try to space milestones at intervals for no longer than every two weeks for projects of several months in duration.
• Visibility - Milestones need to be placed prominently in the project's schedule and tracked periodically. Make sure that your milestones have been incorporated into your project scheduling, calendar, or other project tracking software program.
• Accountability - Milestones are commitments that must be met on time. If a milestone is missed, it needs to be addressed immediately by reexamining the resources to determine if they are properly matched to the objectives.
• Fallibility - It may sound counter-intuitive, but you should select challenging milestones that carry a degree of risk for failure. Not every venture of NASA undertaken to pave the way for the Apollo 11 mission was successful. Ranger 3, an unmanned probe sent to study the Moon missed its target by 22,000 miles. Don't forget to treat milestones as learning experiences and opportunities to make adjustments early in the project's execution.

By keeping these guidelines in mind when project planning milestones, you will able to achieve an appropriate balance between the easy and challenging milestones that will inspire your team members to stay motivated and feel a greater sense of accomplishment.

Not every milestone has to be the "big" launch of a new product to be included on the project schedule. In fact, the more mundane the milestone is the more useful it may be to the project manager in gauging whether the project is on track or whether adjustments need be made to the schedule. Although less exciting than the pinnacle milestone, typical milestones usually recognize the completion of an important deliverable such as the receipt of production equipment or the hiring of essential personnel. However, these commonplace milestones are important in advancing the project to the next level and should be given their due acknowledgment. The strategy behind project planning typical milestones is to ensure that the little things do not fall through the cracks that could end up leading to project failure.

How to Classify Typical Milestones

Typical milestones in project planning are often tied to a quantitative measurement, an internal or external deliverable, or a significant turning point or transition in the project. To determine which milestones are right for your project select ones that will give you regular feedback about the progress of your project, give team members a boost in morale, and align with the critical path of your project. Milestones can be grouped under several classifications that serve these distinct purposes.

Phase transitions are probably the best known milestones. They are typically used for projects that concentrate on developing or expanding a product or service. The exact process will vary from designer to designer, but the method can divided into six basic stages: information gathering, or marketing research, planning, design, development, testing, and delivery.

Rates of Completion are commonly used milestones when the project involves repetition without sequential advancement to the next stage. A good example is a training exercise in which milestones are set for the percentage of employees fully trained or certified, e.g., 25, 50, 75, and 100 percent. The incremental benefits of having a certain level of employees certified is a good choice for a milestone.

Performance recognition milestones are achievements that are not directly connected to the advancement of the project, but recognize the quality of the work performed. For example, in the construction of a plant, a typical milestone would be to recognize periodically that employees have logged in a certain number of work hours without a single safety incident.

Completion of a deliverable is by far the most popular choice for a milestone because it represents tangible evidence of progress towards the project's goals.

How to Write a Project's Milestones

Project milestones measure progress and let you determine how well you are meeting your schedule. When your project continues to be on schedule, you can finish it on time and it is more likely to be on budget. Since milestones play such an important role in project success, they must have characteristics that allow you to observe whether key activities are finished. Writing such milestones into your project plan in an effective way lets you evaluate project status and take corrective action when necessary.

Specific

For your milestones, you have to choose events that take place on a specific date and that clearly mark the completion of a particular activity. Milestones are events that have zero duration and therefore occur on a single day. For example, closing the main breaker to connect the electrical system of a new building to the grid is a milestone showing the electrical installation is complete. Allowing parking on a newly paved lot means the paving is finished. Such milestones are specific to a single date and particular activity.

Observable

Milestones are easily observable. When you providing your milestones into your project plan, you have to choose events that don't use resources for verification of the milestone. You can check, look up or verify a milestone, but it can't require an evaluation or calculation. A test procedure can't be a milestone, but if the procedure gives a result, such as a product that survives the test, the result can be a milestone.

Realistic

The dates you attach to your milestones have to be realistic. You can base the milestones on your project schedule as long as it takes into account all the project activities and leaves enough time for each one. When you don't reach a milestone on time, you have to be able to determine why your reasonable assumptions about the schedule turned out to be wrong and what to do to fix the problem.

Transparent

The most effective milestones are simple events that everyone connected to the project can see. When a client is checking on the situation of the project, clear milestones make it easy to demonstrate how you are progressing. When a team is working toward completion of critical activities, clear milestones serve to motivate them to meet their targets.

Sequential

For milestones that give you clear information about the status of the whole project, those that form a sequence are the most effective. Choose them so that, when one is finished, you can go on to the next one. If they are not sequential, one at the end of the project may depend on one near the beginning, with other milestones in between. Choosing each one for an activity or group of activities that finish at about the same time lets you place the milestones progressively to mirror the work completed on the project.

Examples of Typical Milestones

The pool of typical milestones will vary depending upon the industry and the scope of the project, but here is a representative sample of some of the common milestones to consider for your next project:

• Patent applications approved
• Funding from grants or loans obtained
• Installation, commissioning, or testing of equipment or facilities completed
• Prototypes or samples rolled out
• Release of communications, such as announcements, press releases, and status reports
• Supply contracts satisfactorily negotiated
• Essential personnel hired
• Strategic partnerships and other alliances formed

Target the use of these typical milestones in your project planning to ensure that these important events do not go unnoticed while pursuing loftier and higher profile milestones, such as the rollout of the final product or demonstration to the major stakeholders. The use of these well placed intermediate milestones will help the project stay on track and prepare your team for the adrenaline rush of seeing the final milestone achieved.

Thank you so much!