DOC: Milestones PM User Guide

DOC: Milestones PM User Guide

Video Examples

Milestones PM and RFPs -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvjDrqsWjv8

Before you begin

Before you start using Milestones PM you will need to install it into a new salesforce org or an existing salesforce org. If you will be using a new salesforce org you will want to create it in advance. To do this go to login.salesforce.com and click the link to sign up for free.

After creating your new salesforce org go to AppExchange.com and search for Milestones PM. Here you will find two different versions one is a managed package and the other is unmanaged. If you have the need to customize the application, otherwise select the managed package.

Click the yellow “Get it now” button and follow the instructions to install Milestones PM.

After installing the milestones PM application you will need to assign one or more users to the “Milestones PM” security profile. To do this, take the following actions:

1. Select set up >> administrative set up >> Manage Users >> Users

2. Select the user in question

3. Click edit and select the milestones PM profile

4. Click the “save” button

5. You will also want to verify that this profile has access to the Milestones PM application, and read/write access to the following objects: expenses, logs, milestones, nags, projects, project snapshots, tasks and times.

At this point you may want to explore the Getting Started project. To do this login as the user you created above and open the Milestones PM application. Click the “Getting Started” tab. Near the bottom of the page, you will see a button which reads “Click here to initialize”. This automated process will create a new sample project with milestones called ”HOWTO: Get Started with Milestones PM”. After executing this process, you can click the summary tab to explore this project.

Getting to know Milestones PM

The milestones PM application consists of a nested parent-child relationship between projects, milestones, and tasks. This allows each project to have multiple milestones a milestone to have multiple tasks. In addition, each milestone may have one or more predecessor milestones and each milestone may have a parent milestone. For example the “HOW TO” consists of five milestones:

1. Basic App Install

2. Manual Configuration

3. Getting to Know the App

4. Wrap Up

5. Step 5

Similarly, the milestone “Basic App Install” consists of three tasks:

1. Install from the AppExchange

2. Complete post install activities

3. View project summary page

Now consider your projects, the milestones within these projects, and the tasks that make up each milestone. Milestones can have dependencies with one another. For example, you cannot construct the roof of a house before the walls are completed, and you cannot build the walls before completing the foundation. Constructing the roof is dependent on building the walls, and building the walls is dependent on laying the foundation. The Milestones PM application uses successor and child milestones to create these types of relationships.

Example:

Using the homebuilding analogy, create a simple project for demonstration purposes. Click the Projects tab and then click the “new” button to create a new blank project.

1. Enter “My Dream Home” as the project name

2. Select “Planning” in the status field

3. Enter today's date as the kickoff date and 6 months from today as the deadline

Next, enter 500 hours as the “Total Hours Budget”, and $100,000 as the total expense budget, and click save. Your project should look something like the following:

Scroll down to the milestones section and click “New Milestone.” Enter “01. Foundation” as the milestone name, 40 hours for the milestone hours budget, $20,000 as the expense budget and MyHouse01 as the milestone alias. Note that the suggested name of the milestone begins with 01. Throughout the system milestones will be displayed in alphabetical order, preceding the name of the milestone with a number will "force" logical ordering of each milestone.

After saving this milestone you will be presented with the saved milestones layout that you just created. Scroll down to the successor milestones section and click “new milestone”. Enter “02. Walls” as the milestone name 120 hours for the hour budget, $20,000 for the expense budget and MyHouse02 as the milestone. Repeat this process for roof, electrical, and plumbing each time using roof as the predecessor milestone.

Note: since electrical and plumbing are both dependent on the roof being complete, you could create the electrical milestone then clone it, renaming the clone “electrical.”

To be continued...