Completing construction projects is no easy feat. Not only do you have to manage timelines, budgets, and resources, but you also need to ensure that the work you do is at as high a level of quality as possible. This requires a ton of planning and meticulous attention to detail, and one of the most important planning strategies that every construction company should utilize is the implementation of construction project milestones.
What Are Project Milestones?
The idea of the construction project milestone is simple. These milestones essentially act as stepping stones that allow construction managers to split up a project into multiple smaller parts. They can then use these to create more accurate timelines and start/finish dates as well as to better manage the progress of the project.
Construction project milestones are generally split into four different types. The first two include start and finish dates, which simply highlight when a project will start and be completed. There are also sectional completion dates which essentially act as finish dates for specific phases of a project, as well as handover dates, which mark when one team will hand the project over to another.
If you want your next construction project to be a success, you’ll almost certainly need to plan to use a combination of all four of these different types of milestones.
Why Construction Project Milestones Are Important in Construction Management
Project milestones are essential for completing construction projects successfully for a number of reasons, the first of which is planning. Large construction projects often involve multiple teams working together to complete thousands of individual tasks.
Implementing milestones into construction projects allows managers to more accurately plan how long each phase of a project should take, which makes it much easier to figure out who should be on the schedule to work at specific times.
Along the same lines, milestones also serve as a useful tool for tracking a project’s progress. Whether it’s managers trying to keep a project progressing smoothly or any other stakeholders, milestones allow them all to view how well the project is moving along and whether someone needs to make some adjustments.
Milestones also work well for managing payments to specific teams and subcontractors. Most parties involved in a project simply can’t wait until the project is finished to be paid, and milestones can act as a reference point for when each team should receive payment.
Common Milestones For Managers to Implement
As you can see, project milestones are crucial to the success of any construction project, but that still leaves the question of what milestones managers should actually keep track of. The main thing to focus on here is that milestones are very different from individual tasks.
While a construction project may involve hundreds or even thousands of different tasks, tracking these individual tasks doesn’t provide nearly as much useful information about how a project is progressing.
Milestones also differ from tasks in that they are connected to specific dates. While failing to complete an individual task within a specific timeframe may not have much impact on the project as a whole, missing a milestone will almost certainly slow the progress of a project down and potentially cause significant delays down the line.
A good way to think about this is to think of construction projects like a novel. Each task that you complete on a project is like an individual word in a book. While you certainly are progressing with each word you read, individual words don’t give you much information about the story. Milestones should act as chapters in a story, as completing a chapter shows much more significant progress and gives you much more information about how quickly you can complete a project.
Examples of common milestones that project managers should implement and track, include getting project approval, completing preliminary designs, breaking ground, completing the foundation, weatherproofing, completing elevators, and the final finish date.
Using Project Management Software for Construction to Track Project Progress
Setting project milestones is one thing, but keeping track of them is another. One of the best ways to do this is to use project management software to keep track of meaningful milestone progress and finish dates.
These types of software make communicating information about milestones much easier, as project managers won’t be the only people with access to them. These types of software allow anyone involved in the project to view milestones, their progression, allocated resources, and who is responsible for completing them.
Because of this, If you want to get the most benefits out of using construction project milestones, their implementation should go hand in hand with the adoption of project management software.
Contact Virtual Construction Assistants Today
Do you own a construction company? Are you looking for ways to streamline your business processes so that you can consistently meet your construction project milestones? Give Virtual Construction Assistants a call.
Here at Virtual Construction Assistants, we specialize in finding solutions for construction businesses that want to become more efficient and successful. We have access to an incredibly talented pool of virtual assistants that allow companies to outsource the many administrative and management tasks that can otherwise bog projects down. From document management and data entry to resource allocation, lead generation, marketing, and so much more, our virtual construction assistants have all the skills necessary to help bring your company up to the next level.
The construction industry is incredibly competitive, and if you’re not being proactive in finding innovative and efficient business solutions, it can be easy to fall behind. The good news is that it doesn’t have to be that way. All it takes is the right virtual assistant from Virtual Construction Assistants, and you’ll be well on track for continued success long into the future.
Don’t let your construction company struggle to meet deadlines and budgets any longer. Contact Virtual Construction Assistants and take the first step toward a more efficient and cost-effective way of doing business today!
