Canonical page: https://tellenze.com/help/milestones

# Track outcomes with milestones

Link delivery work, set a target date, and interpret readiness and forecast signals.

## Define a shared outcome

Open **Work → Milestones** to coordinate an outcome across Projects and Teams. A milestone has its own title, description, target date, access, and completion state. It links existing work while leaving the items in their original owners and workflows.

For example, “Customers can manage invoices without support” might connect application changes, a billing process, and a Knowledge article. Describe the outcome and its checks so the team knows what the milestone means beyond a collection of tasks.

## Create and link the scope

1. Choose **New milestone** and enter a **Title** and Markdown **Description**. For a quick start, choose **Add milestone** inside a Loop lane, enter a title, and fill in the rest from the milestone dialog later. Inline creation starts in the chosen stage.
2. Add a **Target date** when the outcome has one.
3. Choose **Entire workspace** or **Private**. For a private milestone, select **People with access**. The creator and workspace administrators retain access.
4. Choose **Create milestone**, open it, switch to **Work**, and select **Link work**.
5. Search by task, identifier, or owner, select the relevant accessible items, and choose **Link selected**.

You can also link milestones from a work item’s **Related work** section. A work item can contribute to more than one milestone. Use the unlink control beside linked work when it leaves this outcome; unlinking does not delete or move it.

Project Focus groups can have their own milestone links. These appear under **Linked Focus groups** in the **Work** tab for planning context. Review the milestone’s **Linked work** separately when checking its delivery scope and progress.

## Move an outcome through The Loop

The full creation form starts a new milestone in **Focus**. The open milestone board groups outcomes into six fixed stages: **Focus → Execute → Observe → Review → Learn → Adapt**. Create directly in a lane to start in that stage. Drag the handle on a card to change its stage or order within a lane, or open the milestone and choose its **The Loop** value in **Details**. The order persists after a reload. Any member who can edit that milestone can move it; private milestone access still applies. Clear search before reordering. A completed milestone retains its stage, and reopening it does not reset the stage.

The stage panel suggests a useful next action. Focus and Adapt point to refinement, Review to a review, and Learn to a retrospective when those features are enabled. Execute suggests linking delivery work; Observe suggests checking progress, evidence, and the forecast. The suggestions guide the team; they do not create rooms or move a milestone automatically.

Cards keep the next action and one delivery signal beneath the progress bar. Open a card to see icon tabs for **Overview**, **Definition**, **Work**, **Insights**, and **Settings**. The details panel keeps actions, target date, creator, Loop controls, and overall progress available while switching tabs. On smaller screens, details follow the selected tab. Use the left/right arrow keys, Home, or End to move between tabs.

Click the title to rename a milestone. In **Definition**, choose the pencil beside **Context** to edit its Markdown description in place. Click the target date (or **No target date**) in **Details** to set or clear it. Choose **Save** or **Cancel**; Enter saves the title, Cmd/Ctrl+Enter saves the description, and Escape cancels the active editor without closing the card. Drafts survive tab changes and background refreshes. If another change wins first, your draft stays visible beside the current saved value: choose **Use latest** or explicitly **Reapply my value**.

Loop stage and access are available directly in **Details**. **More details** reveals the creator. Completion, archive/restore, and retrospective actions stay in the compact action panel; there is no separate Edit form for these fields.

**Definition** holds the saved outcome. **Overview** offers **Generate briefing** when Looper is available. This explicitly sends the milestone definition, stage, target, and up to 100 accessible active work titles, statuses, blockers, and dates to the configured Looper provider. The resulting summary, points needing attention, and suggested next step are private to you and include source links. It does not change the milestone or linked work.

When source content or access changes, the saved briefing is cleared and needs fresh generation. Loading, unavailable, failed, and stale states are shown explicitly. A failed request with an uncertain provider outcome needs an administrator to check it before retrying; it is not silently sent twice. You can keep using all other tabs while Looper is unavailable.

**Insights** starts with planning foundations: an outcome description, a meaningful target date, and linked supporting work. Scope and flow show active visible items, projects and teams, workflow counts, and blocked unfinished items. These signals require no delivery history and exclude archived items. They cover only work you can access; private scope contributes solely to overall progress.

## Read progress without confusing access

The milestone displays the number of linked items shipped and its overall completion percentage. Visible work is grouped by owner and workflow stage. A Project can also show its related milestones in its **Milestones** section.

Private work that you cannot open can still contribute to the milestone’s aggregate progress. The page reports how many linked items are private without exposing their details. Granting milestone access does not grant access to the underlying Projects, Teams, documents, or work items. Consequently, two readers can see different linked-work lists for the same overall outcome.

## Interpret the delivery forecast

Where forecasts are enabled, expand **Delivery forecast** in **Insights** to see **Likely · p50**, **Conservative · p85**, and **On-time probability** when available. These are estimates from observed delivery and remaining work, not promised dates. The target date and predicted dates serve different purposes.

Forecasting needs at least four completions across four observed weeks. **Insufficient data** means the application cannot support an estimate yet. History before measurement coverage is not invented. A pending forecast is being calculated and refreshes automatically; the refresh control checks its current state.

Changing scope, estimates, stages, or delivery history can change the forecast. Treat the result as a reason to examine blocked work, assumptions, and scope together.

## Complete and maintain the milestone

The creator or an administrator can **Complete**, **Reopen**, **Archive**, **Restore**, and manage **Access**. Other members with access can edit an active milestone and its linked work.

Completion is an explicit decision about the outcome; the application does not automatically complete the milestone when all linked work ships, and completing it does not complete unfinished linked items. Check the evidence before choosing Complete.

When gamification is enabled, completion gives contributors an additional points and XP reward based on their recorded base awards for completed, directly linked work without subtasks. The default reward matches each member’s original base points and XP for that work. Changing assignees does not transfer credit, and the member clicking Complete gets no extra reward just for that action. Unfinished or archived work, indirect Focus links, and imported history without original rewards do not contribute.

Reopening reverses the milestone reward originally recorded, including when gamification has since been disabled. Completing again calculates a new reward from the current eligible scope; repeated requests do not create duplicate rewards. Your profile’s **Recent wins** shows milestone rewards and reversals while respecting the milestone’s access rules.

You can complete or archive an outcome from any Loop stage. Restore an archived milestone before moving it. If someone else changes the milestone first, the page loads the latest version so you can review it before trying again.

The directory separates **Open**, **Completed**, and **Archived** milestones and searches within the selected group. Restore an archived milestone before editing it. When a save conflict loads the latest version, review the refreshed details or selections and save again. If a work item is absent from the link picker, check whether it is already linked, archived, or inaccessible.