Milestones

Milestones

A milestone is a goal marker that tracks testing progress toward a specific target, such as a release or sprint completion.

What is a Milestone?

Milestones represent significant testing checkpoints. They track readiness to ship, identify blockers, and show how quality is trending over time.

Milestone Use Cases

Release Targets:

• "v2.0 Release" - All tests must pass before shipping
• "Q1 GA" - Quality gate for quarterly release

Sprint Endings:

• "Sprint 24" - Track completion for agile sprint
• "Iteration 5" - Measure progress across iterations

Quality Gates:

• "Production Readiness" - All critical tests passing, no P0 bugs
• "Sign-off Ready" - Stakeholder approval conditions met

Milestone Components

Each milestone tracks:

• Name: Clear identifier for the milestone
• Target Date: When the milestone should be achieved
• Associated Tests: Which tests must pass
• Associated Defects: Which bugs must be resolved
• Progress Metrics: Pass rates, defect counts, coverage

Milestone Progress Tracking

Qualflare shows milestone progress through:

Pass Rate:

• What percentage of tests are passing?
• Is the pass rate improving or declining?
• Are you meeting the quality threshold?

Defect Count:

• How many open defects remain?
• What's the severity breakdown?
• Are critical defects resolved?

Coverage:

• How many required tests have been run?
• Are there untested areas?

Trends:

• Is quality improving over time?
• Are regressions being introduced?

Milestone Completion

A milestone is complete when:

• All Required Tests Pass: Critical tests meet success criteria
• Defects Resolved: High-priority bugs are fixed and verified
• Coverage Met: All planned test areas have been executed
• Sign-off Obtained: Stakeholders approve the milestone

Milestone vs Test Plan

Test plans schedule test execution; milestones track progress toward goals.

A single milestone might include multiple test plans:

• "v2.0 Release" milestone includes:
  • Smoke test plan (runs every commit)
  • Regression test plan (runs weekly)
  • Performance test plan (runs before release)

Related

• Test Plans - Tests contributing to milestones
• Launches - Test runs tracking toward milestones
• Defects - Bugs blocking milestone completion