I'm developing a list of milestones for a hypothetical software development project.
Two of the milestones I've come up with are:
MILESTONE DUE DATE STAKEHOLDER ACCEPTANCE CRITERIA ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3 Development completed 15/05/2012 Development All development tasks have a team status of 'Done'. 4 System tested 15/05/2012 Testing team Intranet system fulfills all of the test cases.
I've given both milestones the same completion date, as I can't see how one activity can be complete independently of the other.
If development is complete, then testing must be also, because testing might reveal errors which required further development to resolve.
If testing is complete, then development must be also, since the fact that the system is fulfilling all of the test cases means that the software is doing its job, hence no further development is required.
Does this seem normal? Or is there some mistake in the milestones I've defined?
(Parenthetically, do the milestones seem to break the SMART criteria in any way? Personally I think they are fine, unless I'm misinterpreting the SMART criteria somehow.)