Milestones¶
Milestones can be included within the planning, tender, contract and contract implementation sections.
Planning¶
The planning milestones block is used for two types of milestones:
Key events in the planning process, for example, the preparation of an environmental impact assessment, the approval to proceed with a project, or the date of a public consultation.
Anticipated milestones during the contract implementation stage, for example, the date by which goods delivery of the goods is required.
If during the planning process you have information about tender process milestones, then you populate the tender milestones block instead.
Tender¶
The tender milestones block is used to describe two types of milestone:
Key dates in the tender and award stages which are not covered by other fields, for example, the date by which procuring entity will respond to enquiries.
Anticipated milestones during the contract implementation stage, for example, the date by which goods need to be delivered.
Contract¶
The contract milestones block is used to describe:
Events related to the signing of the contract, for example, the date of commercial close in a PPP contract.
Contract Implementation¶
The contract implementation milestones block is used to describe:
Any events related to the delivery of the contract, for example, the agreed date by which goods will be delivered.
The nature of the milestone is indicated by the milestone type codelist, for example, to distinguish between milestones in the planning section which relate to events in the pre-procurement phase and those which relate to contract implementation.
At the point of contract signature, a comparison between tender/milestones
and contract/implementation/milestones
with a milestone/type
of 'delivery' or 'reporting' should reveal how the negotiated contract differs from what was set out at tender time.
The dueDate
, dateMet
, dateModified
and status
fields are used to track the lifecycle of the milestone.
Worked examples¶
The following worked examples show how to use milestones in different scenarios.
Planning milestones¶
The example below includes a planning release with details of a planned procurement, including the date the budget plan is expected to be ready.
The date the budget plan is expected to be ready is represented using a milestone in planning/milestones
with .type
is set to 'preProcurement' because the milestone relates to the planning process. .dueDate
is set to the date and .status
is set to 'scheduled'.
Contract implementation milestones¶
The following worked examples show how to use milestones in contract implementation releases
Project data¶
This worked example shows how to use milestones to model the planned and actual start and finish dates for a construction project.
The example below includes three OCDS releases:
An implementation release which includes the scheduled start and end dates for the project.
An implementation update release with the actual start date of the project
An implementation update release with the actual end date of the project
In the award release:
The scheduled start and end dates for the project are represented using milestones in
contracts/implementation/milestones
with.type
set to 'delivery' because they relate to the delivery of the contract. The dates are provided in.dueDate
and.status
is set to 'scheduled'.The publisher has defined their own values for the
.code
field so they can filter and compare start and end date milestones across different contracts.
In the first implementation update release, which is published after the project starts but before it completes:
In the project commencement milestone,
.dateMet
is set to the actual start date and.status
is set to 'met'..dateModified
is set to the date the milestone was updated.In the project completion milestone,
.status
is set to 'notMet' since the project is not yet complete and.dateModified
is set to the date the milestone was updated.
Users can compare the project commencement milestone's .dueDate
and .dateMet
fields to determine if the project started on time. Users can also compare the project completion milestone's .dueDate
and .dateModified
fields to determine whether the .status
has been updated since the scheduled completion date.
In the second implementation update release, which is published after the project completes:
In the project completion milestone,
.dateMet
is set to the actual completion date for the project and.status
is set to 'met'.
Delivery and financing data¶
This example shows how milestones can be used to keep track of delivery and financing (payment) data in a contracting process.
The example below includes three OCDS releases:
An implementation release with contract information including scheduled implementation milestones.
An implementation update release with the actual date the milestone was reached.
An implementation update release with payment information
In the implementation release:
Milestones have been set for the delivery and payment of goods and services related to the project. Contract information is released along with the implementation milestones.
In the first implementation update release:
The milestone ("Finish the exterior and interior walls") has been met, so the
status
field is set to 'met' and the relevant dates are added to thedateMet
anddateModified
fields.
In the second implementation update release:
The construction company has received payment for the work done so far, so the milestone for the wall restoration with type 'financing' is updated. A new
transaction
is disclosed, with the amount paid to the company.