The Milestones Module

Facilitate approvals and mark checkpoints in your improvement process by adding customizable Milestones to Templates

With the Milestones module, you can create a configurable workflow that you can overlay on top of any of your templates. We call each element of this workflow a milestone.

Create milestones that accurately reflect your organization’s improvement process. For example, you might want to add milestones such as:

• Finance Approval
• Leadership Approval
• Committee Approval

In this article, we will discuss:

• Milestone Configuration
• Submitting and Approving Milestones
• Using Optional Milestones
• Filtering Lists by Milestone
• Adding Deadlines to Milestones

Milestone Configuration

Milestones are configured individually for each Template. There are many ways you can configure Milestones; in this section, we will discuss all the ways you can customize Milestones.

If you'd like to create new Milestones or make adjustments to existing Milestones, reach out to your Customer Success Manager.

Decide the order Milestones appear

When a Template includes multiple Milestones, you can choose in what order the Milestones are listed. This will determine the order of completion. 

If there is no particular order, two or more Milestones need to be completed before work can continue, you can have multiple Milestones listed in the same step.

Add descriptions to each Milestone

To better communicate the purpose and requirements of each milestone, you can add a description. The description will appear when anyone hovers over the milestone name on an Item

Decide who can approve a Milestone

Specify the Team Role or System Role a person needs to have to be able to approve the milestone.

Specify the default status of a Milestone

There are three statuses a Milestone can have: "Submit for Milestone Approval," Submitted," and "Approved." You can choose what status a Milestone defaults to when all prerequisites for the Milestone have been met. 

• If a Milestone's default status is "Submit for Milestone Approval," the Milestone must be submitted before it can be approved. 
• If a Milestone's default status is "Submitted," no one needs to submit the Milestone for approval, and it can immediately be approved by someone with the appropriate Role. 
• If a Milestone's default status is "Approved," the Milestone is automatically approved. It can be unapproved by someone with the appropriate Role if necessary. 

Choose how a Milestone is submitted for Approval

There are multiple ways for a milestone to be submitted for Approval. Once the submit action(s) are fulfilled, the Milestone will show as "Submitted." 

• Person: If you want a Milestone to be submitted for Approval by a Person, then there will be a “Submit for approval” button listed beneath the Milestone in the Item. Only people who can edit the Item can see and click this button.
  • You can specify if you want the "Submit for Approval" button displayed in the Resolution. The approval button will be listed in the Resolution section as well as the Milestone section.
  • You can also decide if you want to allow that approval at any time. The approval button will appear even if earlier milestones have not been approved.
  • If, after the “submit for approval” button is selected, you change your mind, you can click the “unsubmit for approval” button that replaced it. If the milestone has already been approved, you will need it to be unapproved before this button will reappear.
• Status change: The milestone will be submitted for Approval once the Item moves into a specific status.
• Previous milestone approval: The milestone will be ready for approval once all previous milestones have been approved.
• Attribute Value: Milestones can be configured to automatically update upon the selection of a specific Attribute value(s). If enabled, selecting a certain Attribute value(s) of a single Attribute can cause a Milestone to be “Submitted for Approval” or, in the case of Optional Milestones, it can cause a Milestone to be activated and thus added to the template. 
  • If the Attribute value is changed before the Milestone has been acted on, then the Milestone will be changed back to “Not Submitted for Approval” or be inactivated and removed from the Template.
  • If the Attribute value is changed after the Milestone has been acted on, then the Milestone will not be affected. 

Add Optional Milestones

Optional Milestones are not visible by default and are added to the Item's existing Milestones when certain criteria are met. During Milestone configuration, you can decide whether an Optional Milestone will be triggered by:

• People
  • Optional Milestones can be manually added by KaiNexus users. You can decide whether the Optional Milestone can be added by everyone who can edit the Item or only by people with specific Team or System Roles. 
• Financial Impact
  • Optional Milestones can be triggered when a specific amount for Financial Impact is entered into the Resolution. 
  • If enabled, entering a certain Financial Impact amount on a Target, Forecast, or Actual Resolution can cause an optional Milestone to be activated and added to the Item.
    
    You can also specify a threshold value which, if exceeded, will automatically activate the optional Milestone. You can even decide if you want the same Milestone to be triggered by different thresholds depending on the Impact Location (or the Item's Responsible Location, if there is no Impact Location).
    • If the Financial Impact amount is changed before the Milestone has been acted on, then the Milestone will be inactivated and removed from the Item. 
    • If the Financial Impact amount is changed after the Milestone has been acted on, the Milestone will not be affected. 
• Attribute
  • Optional Milestones can be triggered when an Attribute on the Item is changed to specific values. For example, you can have an additional Milestone triggered when a "Priority" Attribute is marked as "High."

You also have the option to use both Financial Impact and Attributes to trigger the same Optional Milestone. When using Financial Impact and an Attribute to trigger an Optional Milestone, you can decide whether both requirements must be met to add the Milestone to the Item or whether one of the two requirements is sufficient to add the Milestone to the Item. 

Specify actions that revert an Approved Milestone to its unapproved status

If there are scenarios where you would want a Milestone that has already been approved to revert to the "Submit for Approval" status, then you can add "Unset Actions" to the Milestone. Unset Actions will unapprove a Milestone. 

Unset actions include:

• Result/Impact Change: With this setting, any changes to the Resolution will result in the milestone being unapproved.
• Detail Change: With this setting, any changes to a field or attribute (from the edit window or from the Resolution window) will result in the milestone being unapproved.
• Reopen: With this setting, reopening a closed Improvement will result in the milestone being unapproved.

Block Item Statuses with Milestone Approvals

For each Milestone, you can specify whether any Item Status is blocked until that Milestone is Approved. 

Enable "Save & Complete" Button on Milestone Approval

If you would like to complete an Item at the same time as approving a milestone, ask to enable the Save & Complete button on a certain milestone. Selecting the Save & Complete button after Approving a milestone will take you to the Resolution screen or Complete screen, depending on whether Resolution is enabled on the Item. 

We recommend only enabling this on the final milestone of an Item. 

Submitting and Approving milestones

Submit and Approve Milestones within the Milestones section of an Item. You can find the Milestones section in the Details Panel. If you do not see a Milestones section on an Item, then the Template for that Item does not have any Milestones. 

What do the different colors and icons of milestones mean?

1. - Gray text indicates that the milestone is not submitted for approval.
   
   
2. - Blue text indicates that the milestone has been submitted for approval
   
   
3. - Red text indicates that the milestone has been marked as “Not Approved.”
   
   
4.   - Green text indicates that the milestone has been approved. Any previously blocked status changes will now be available.
   
   
5.  or - An exclamation point indicates that the milestone blocks certain status changes until it’s Approved. Hover over the exclamation point (not the text) to see which Statuses are blocked. 

How to submit a Milestone for Approval

To submit a Milestone for Approval, open the Item and locate the milestone section. If you have the ability to submit the Milestone for approval, there will be a Submit for Milestone Name button beneath the milestone name. 

• When the Submit for Milestone Name button is selected, a gray rotate icon will appear to the right of the milestone, and the Submit for Milestone Name button will disappear. The milestone name will turn blue. 
• Selecting the rotate icon will unsubmit the milestone. The Submit for Milestone Name button will reappear, and the milestone will return to blue. 

If the milestone is denied, the milestone name will turn red, and the rotate icon will appear. Clicking the rotate icon will resubmit the milestone for Approval. 

Who can approve a Milestone?

This was also specified when your organization added milestones to the template. Certain Roles are required to approve a milestone, and only people with those Roles will be able to do so.

You can further specify which users have the ability to approve Milestones by now requiring the user to have Edit permission for that specific Item the Milestone is on. With this enabled, in order to approve a Milestone, the person must have the specified Role and have permission to edit that Item.

Additionally, you can further define who has the ability to approve Milestones by requiring a User to be a specified team member of the Item. For example, you may only want “Leaders” of a Project you are working on to be able to approve a certain Milestone. 

Reach out to your Customer Experience Lead to help you configure who has the ability to approve Milestones.

Approve a Milestone from a flag at the top of the Item

If there is a milestone ready for Approval, a flag letting you know a milestone is ready for Approval will appear at the top of the Item. All users who can view the Item will see the flag. 

• If you have the ability to approve the current milestone, the flag will include Approve and Deny action buttons. 
• To Approve or Deny a milestone from the flag, select the appropriate action. A pop-up menu will appear showing your Approve or Deny selection, and you can enter a Note to provide additional detail on your decision if desired. 

If there are two or more milestones ready for Approval, the flag will let you know there are multiple milestones ready for approval. 

• Select Show. The flag will expand, and each Milestone ready for Approval will be listed. You can also select the caret icon on the far right of the flag to expand the flag. 

• If you have the ability to approve one of the milestones, the expanded flag will include Approve and Deny action buttons. 
• To Approve or Deny a milestone from the flag, select the appropriate action. A pop-up menu will appear showing your Approve or Deny selection, and you can enter a Note to provide additional detail on your decision if desired.  

Approve Milestones from the Details Panel of an Item

If you have permission to approve one or more Milestones on an Item, you’ll see the pencil icon next to the list of Milestones. Click the pencil icon to open the Milestones window.

Milestones that you have permission to approve, unapprove, or mark as "not approved" are displayed in black text. Those that you cannot edit or that are not ready for approval are displayed in light gray text.

Hover over the info icon  next to a milestone to reveal more information about that milestone, as entered by your organization. If you don’t see that icon, no additional information is available.

Check the “approved” box under a Milestone to approve it; check the “not approved” box under a Milestone to indicate that it has been reviewed and is not approved. Enter a note if you want to provide more detail, then:

• Check the box next to “Email Note(s) Now” and enter the appropriate names to immediately email your note to the right people.
• Check the box next to “Do Not Notify” to stop notifications (flags, emails, etc.) from being sent out.
• Select Save

Why isn’t this milestone submitted for Approval?

When your organization added Milestones to a Template, each Milestone was assigned certain actions that must be completed before it is ready for approval. These actions may include:

• Certain status changes
• The approval of all previous milestones
• A person indicates the milestone is ready for approval. NOTE: Only people who can edit the specific item can give this indication.
  • If the milestone requires a person to indicate it’s submitted for approval, people who can edit the item will see a blue button displayed below the milestone. It will say Submit for Milestone Name Approval. 
  • Select the Submit button and, if all other prerequisites for the milestone have been met, its text will turn blue and it will be ready for approval.

How can you tell if a milestone is blocking the Completion of an Item?

There are two ways to tell whether there is an unapproved milestone blocking the completion of an Item. 

• Navigate to the Milestones section of an Item and locate any Milestones with an Exclamation Point icon.
  • Hover over the Exclamation Point icon. A tooltip will appear showing which statuses the Milestone is blocking. 
  • If Complete is one of the blocked statuses, you will not be able to Complete the Item before the Milestone is Approved. 
• You can also learn when a milestone is blocking the completion of an Item when you submit a Resolution for the Item. 
  • Navigate to the Resolution tab or Panel of an Item and select the Submit Resolution button. 
  • After you fill out the Resolution, select Complete. 
  • If there is a Milestone blocking the completion of an Item, a Milestone Approval window will pop up, telling you that a Milestone must first be approved before the Item can be completed. The earliest unapproved Milestone will be listed. 
  • If the blocking milestone has not yet been submitted, you can easily submit the Milestone for approval from the Milestone Approval window. 
  • Once the blocking milestone has been submitted, select Done. Your resolution will be saved and the Item can be completed once the Milestone has been Approved. 

Adding an Optional Milestone to an Item

Optional Milestones are not visible on an Item by default; certain criteria must be met for them to appear. 

Optional Milestones can be added to an Item manually by a person or triggered automatically when a certain Attribute Value or Financial Impact is logged on the Item. 

This section will review how to manually add an Optional Milestone to an Item.

Who can add or remove an Optional Milestone for a particular Item?

It depends on your organization’s configuration. You can decide whether anyone who can edit the Item can add the Optional Milestone or whether to limit the ability to specific Team or System Roles. 

How do I add an Optional Milestone for a particular Item?

Assuming you have permission to enable the optional milestone, first open the item with which you want to work, then:

• Click to the right of the list of milestones.
  
  

• In the resulting window, click “Add” next to the optional milestone.
  
  

• Click .

How do I remove an Optional Milestone for a particular Item?

Assuming you have permission to disable the optional milestone, first open the item with which you want to work, then:

• Click to the right of the list of milestones.
  
  

• In the resulting window, click “Remove” next to the optional milestone.
  
  

• Click .

Filter a list of Items by Milestones

Anywhere you can see a list of items, you have the ability to filter that list. This module adds a new option for filtering by milestones - the "Milestone" filter.

Pick any combination of milestones using that filter and a new field will appear in which you can enter the status you want that milestone to be in - choose between “Not Ready for Approval,” “Ready for Approval,” "Not Approved," and “Approved.”

Adding Deadlines to Milestones

You can now add deadlines to your Milestones. This allows you to configure your Milestones to be on a preset time frame. The time frame begins initially by triggering a specific action within the Item. If the Milestone is not completed within the allotted time frame, then the Milestone will change to a ‘Past Due’ status. Deadline timeframes can be configured for both when you are trying to make the Milestone “Ready for Approval”, aka the Ready Deadline, and when you are trying to “Approve”, aka the Approval Deadline, the Milestone. This feature will help ensure you are approving your Milestones in a timely manner. 

Filter by Milestone Dates

You can filter by the dates you configure for your Milestones. These include:

• Ready Deadline
  This option will show Items that have the specified Milestones with "Ready Deadlines" within the selected date range.
  
  
• Ready Date
  This option will show Items that have the specified Milestones with "Ready Dates" within the selected date range.
  
  
• Approval Deadline
  This option will show Items that have the selected Milestones with "Approval Deadlines" within the selected date range.
  
  
• Approval Date
  This option will show Items that have the selected Milestones with "Approval Dates" within the selected date range.