I find myself typing the same information in for Milestone’s and To-Do’s. Makes me think I’m not using one (or both) of them properly!

So when do you use which?

-Costas

PS- Basecamp is definitely a practical tool, but I find myself lacking the PM skills to use it effectively! Can anyone recommend some practical articles/information that will help a 1 person firm with subcontractors structure projects better?

I do the same thing a lot too. I’ll have a milestone called, “Write Module for this and that” and I’ll have a todo list called, “Write Module for this and that”. I always feel like I’m doing something wrong here. I’d really like to know if there is a better way to this.

I guess the milestone would be better written as “Module X Delivery”, and is set for the date on which the module is to be delivered to the “customer” (internal or external). You would then have a to-do called “Develop Module X” with items such as gather requirements, functional design, implementation design, build, unit test, integrate, integration test, commission etc.

The milestone is therefore worded as a description of an event occurring at a particular instant in time, whereas the to-do list is written as a description of the process required to prepare for the event. But at the end of the day, if the way you currently use Basecamp works for you, use it! ;)

Perfect distinction Nick

Yes, milestones are intended as events and todos/lists are typically verbs that need to be done to prepare for the event. Because there can be a one-to-many relationship between milestones and lists, 37s put the “Does this list relate to a milestone?” question.

Often-times, there is just one list (or just one todo!) that is related to a milestone, so it would be a really convenient shortcut to have some sort of “create a milestone for this list” action link, which would default to a title of “todo_list_name due” and allow you to type the date right there. Otherwise, you end up doing what you described: typing the same information for Milestones and To-Dos.

Of course, 37s has said that they will be revamping the milestones section (possibly it was even “the way milestones work”, I can’t remember) in BC, so it’ll be interesting to see what direction they go.

I write milestones as if an event that has occured, eg “Evaluations are delivered to faculty” while a task list might be the individual people to deliver to. I find this gets me in the mindset of accomplishing the milestone.

I generally agree with Nick and Erik on this. Here’s how I think of it:

When someone has to deliver or return/review something to another person, that’s a milestone. When a task can or should be accomplished without any visibility to the rest of the team, it’s a to-do. For instance – “Deliver site revision #3 to client” is a milestone, because it usually has a deadline associated to it. Usually, I’d create a to-do list called “site revisions round #3” with a number of client-requested + internal steps needed to achieve delivery of the milestone.

The trick is that clients need milestones too, like “Deliver review/approval of revision #3”, and these go between your company’s delivery milestones. That way, milestones become a way of tracking and calendaring the transactions between clients, teams, and colleagues.

I just think of milestones as… milestones. If you had a journey, and you broke it up into pieces, to measure how well you’re doing… and to make sure you were making steady progress, how would you break that up? Thats a milestone.

A to-do is… a to-do. Imagine that.

• Client says “Go”
• Website Project Paperwork Completed
• 1st Round of Website Design Comps Delivered
• Website Design Approved
• All Website Content Received From Client

To Do List Examples:

• Account Executive: Email client website agreement
• Account Executive: Email client website design preference survey
• Client: Complete website agreement & fax to Volcanic
• Client: Complete website design preference survey & fax to Volcanic
• Project Manager: Ensure all paper work is complete & okay with accounting
• Project Manager: Mail ‘New Client Packet’ to client

Does that help?

I realize this is an old thread but I think it missed the point. Most of the time, the name of a Todo list is redundant with the milestone. Yes we could word them differently but IMHO that’s the minor point. The solution I would like to see is a checkbox when creating a Milestone that would automatically create a Todo list with the same name. 90% of the time this would be all I need and it would save time. For those where I have more than one checklist, I can still go back and add it.

But hopefully this is mute with the upcoming rewrite. Has an availbility date ever been mentioned?