separate-milestone-from-deadline

Separate milestone from deadline

A milestone is a projection you can move; a deadline is a constraint that moves you. Blur them and every slip reads as an emergency, and the only lever left is optimism. Label each date and attach the response that fits it.

Procedure

1. In notes/plan.md, tag every date. Use an explicit field so it is machine-checkable:

   - [ ] M2 2026-03-14 milestone   # projection, can move
   - [ ] launch 2026-04-01 deadline  # constraint, cannot move
   

2. Define the response per tag before the slip happens: a milestone that misses triggers a re-plan and a new date; a deadline that is at risk triggers a scope cut until it fits.

3. Never let a milestone drift into a deadline by being repeated. If a date has been quoted to customers or a contract, it is a deadline — re-tag it and write down what that means.

4. Keep at most one or two true deadlines in a plan. More than that means the plan is over-constrained and something else has to give.

5. Count them so the split stays honest:

   grep -c 'deadline' notes/plan.md
   grep -c 'milestone' notes/plan.md
   

6. When a milestone moves, the plan's end date moves with it unless a buffer absorbs it. Say which.

7. When a deadline is fixed, re-derive scope from the date backwards — do not assert both will hold.

Pitfalls

• Calling everything a deadline, which makes every projection a crisis and destroys the plan's credibility.
• Repeatedly re-dating a milestone while telling stakeholders it is unchanged.
• A deadline with no scope lever attached, so the only way to "make it" is unpaid overtime or hidden risk.
• Forgetting that an external commitment (contract, marketing date, dependency) silently converts a milestone into a deadline.
• Reporting milestone status to people who heard a deadline, so a forecast slip is received as a broken promise.

Verification

grep -c 'deadline' notes/plan.md; grep -c 'milestone' notes/plan.md
# passes when every date carries a tag and deadlines are the minority of dates

Report each date with its tag, the response rule for each, and the count of true deadlines in the plan.