Project Milestones & project budgeting Morning session

What is a milestone? Mark critical points in completion of the contracted work. A significant development, event or accomplishment in your plan of attack Achievements that help verify that the project is on track and on schedule An essential component of good project management Note: Milestones should be closely related to the anticipated project outcome/s, objectives and project budget

Milestones are used to: Measure progress – management tool Provide the basis for review & reporting Give SFF confidence that the project is on track & is well managed.

Getting started Define what you hope to achieve from the project. The milestones should always relate back to your objectives. Brainstorm ideas – what are the different tasks, steps that you will need to do to get to an end result? List all the things you are going to do for each year of your 3 year programme & break these into definable chunks. Identify the critical points, the key markers. These are your milestones.

Milestones need to include: What will be achieved Specific criteria (If the milestone can be interpreted in more than one way it is not specific) Quality measures (These are particularly important if you have contracted someone else to do the work.) Target date Milestones also need to be realistic – do you have the capacity ($ and people) to achieve them?

Some examples Submitted milestone Focus farm network operational. Target date: Nov Revised milestone Focus farm network involving 14 properties spread throughout NZ operational. (Farms, community groups & facilitators selected & work programme agreed). Target date Nov Example 1

Some examples Submitted milestone Commence literature search. Target date: Feb Revised milestone Literature review of community attitudes to landscape planning completed according to agreed terms of reference. Target date Feb Example 2

Some examples Submitted milestone First workshop undertaken Target date: Feb Revised milestone First workshop on organic farming techniques undertaken. (At least 20 participants in attendance) Target date Feb 2003 Just because you have held a workshop doesn’t mean that you have made progress. You might have been better to spend the money on something else. e.g. newspaper articles) Example 3

Some examples Submitted milestone Nitrogen treatments applied, trial regime and measurement site decided for year 2, soils chosen for characterisation from other growing regions, gold spatial data collected from Zespri and soil data from EBOP, fruit softening data collected from Zespri and corresponding fertiliser data from suppliers, presentation in Zespri Kiwi- tech seminars completed on progress to date. (Target August 2005) Example 4

Check! Ask yourself the question – will your milestones get you to where you want to go? Are all the milestones/tasks absolutely necessary? ie. If you leave this step out will it make a difference to the project? Are there milestones missing? Are there steps or tasks that you need to include that you haven’t listed? Are your milestones specific & measurable?

Milestones & project budget Use the milestones as the basis for preparing your budget. Cost out each milestone using the categories in the SFF budget sheet. You must be able to justify the figures that you include in your budget. Don’t forget to include budget provision for project management. Confirm cash contributions (Other than SFF) Assess in-kind contributions

In-kind In-kind expenses are those which are incurred during the running of a project and are contributed on a no payment basis. They can include virtually anything which can be deemed a legitimate cost to the project. In-kind contributions provide an indication of the level of community/group/industry support for the project and also provide the leverage to access funding. You will need a reliable system for recording in-kind contributions. Costs included must be realistic and be able to be verified. Recording in-kind contributions is an essential part of project management but how you do it is up to you.

Assessing in-kind Step 1: List all the different parties who potentially are contributors to the project and the contribution they are likely to make. Step 2: Assign the contributions to the categories as set out in the SFF claim form and draw up an in-kind budget. This will help you track progress overtime Step 3: Devise a system for recording the individual contributions. Develop a system that works for you. Step 4: Keep regular checks on how things are going. Ask your contributors to return an update each quarter of their in-kind expenses. Remember: Recording in-kind contributions is a matter of horses for courses. It’s a matter of finding an approach that works for you and your group.