What this template is for
Milestone reviews exist so a project can pause, take stock, and decide whether to continue, change course, or hold. They fail when criteria were never made explicit (“we’ll know it when we see it”), when outcomes are not recorded, and when “conditional pass” decisions evaporate into the next sprint without follow-up.
This template makes each milestone gate a Jira issue with the criteria, outcome, and follow-ups explicitly captured.
When to use it
Use this template for every formal milestone gate on a project that has them - design freeze, code freeze, beta gate, GA gate, contractual milestones. Skip it for agile sprint boundaries (use the sprint-retrospective template instead).
How to set it up in Jira
Add the custom fields above to your governance project. Use Custom Fields for the Outcome select list (Pass / Conditional / Hold) so dashboards roll up cleanly. Link each milestone review to the project charter via a Jira issue link.
Sub-task breakdown
- Confirm completion criteria ensures the gate has explicit pass conditions before the review.
- Verify exit conditions is the audit pass before the meeting.
- Run the review meeting is the gate event itself.
- Capture decisions and outstanding items turns the meeting into durable record.
- Update plan and announce outcome closes the loop with the broader team.
Use STM Issue Templates to auto-create the sub-tasks on every new milestone review.
Fields to add to your Jira create screen
These are the fields a project admin should make sure exist on the Create Issue screen for this issue type (Project settings → Screens). Without these on the screen, reporters can't provide the information triage needs - and STM can't reference them either.
| Field | Example value | Required |
|---|---|---|
Summary | Milestone review - Design freeze - Payments program | Yes |
Project (custom) | Payments Platform Modernisation | Yes |
Milestone Name (custom) | Design freeze | Yes |
Planned Date (custom) | 2026-06-15 | Yes |
Actual Date (custom) | 2026-06-18 | No |
Completion Criteria (custom) | Bulleted exit conditions for the milestone | No |
Status (custom) | On track / At risk / Slipped | Yes |
Outstanding Items (custom) | Anything blocking pass | No |
Risks Identified (custom) | New risks visible at this gate | No |
Outcome (custom) | Pass / Conditional pass / Hold | No |
Reviewer / Approver (custom) | Steering group, sponsor | No |
Component/s | milestones, governance | No |
Labels | milestone, payments-program | No |
Attachments | Review deck, completion-criteria checklist | No |
Note on custom fields. STM currently supports up to 5 custom fields per template. You can add as many custom fields as you like to your Jira Create Issue screen - the 5-field limit only applies if you want STM to set or update those custom fields itself.
Sub-tasks STM creates automatically
Build an STM sub-task template containing the items below, then wire it to an On Create Issue Executor scoped to this issue type. Whenever a new issue of this type is created in the project, STM creates the full sub-task set in one step - with assignee, due date, and components inherited from the parent unless you override them.
- Confirm completion criteria with project lead
- Verify all exit conditions are met
- Run the milestone review meeting
- Capture decisions and outstanding items
- Update the project plan and announce the outcome
Common questions
What is a Jira milestone review template?
It is a Jira task that captures a single mid-flight project gate - a checkpoint where the team formally reviews whether the milestone's exit criteria have been met. It records the milestone, planned vs actual date, completion criteria, outstanding items, risks, outcome (pass / conditional / hold), and approver. One issue per milestone gate.
How do you run a milestone review in Jira?
Create one Jira issue per milestone gate using this template. Populate the completion criteria during chartering or kickoff, not at the review itself. At the gate, capture which criteria are met, what outstanding items exist, and the outcome. Link the milestone review to the project charter and to any decision-log entries that came out of it.
Should every project have milestone reviews in Jira?
Use milestone reviews for projects with formal governance, multi-team coordination, or external stakeholder sign-off. For single-team agile delivery, sprint cadence and the status-update-weekly template provide enough rhythm. Reserve milestone reviews for the moments where the project's direction or scope could change based on the review outcome.
What custom fields belong on a Jira milestone review?
Project, milestone name, planned date, actual date, completion criteria, status, outstanding items, risks identified, outcome, and approver. Configure Outcome and Status via Custom Fields select lists for dashboard filtering. Required-on-create for milestone name and planned date so the gate is unambiguous.
Automate the sub-tasks with STM
STM Issue Templates saves the sub-task list above as a reusable template and creates them on every new issue of this type - via an Executor on issue creation, on status transition, or triggered manually from the issue's "Create bulk sub-tasks" menu. STM does not change the parent issue's create screen (that's a Jira project-settings job) but it removes the manual work of creating the sub-tasks every time.
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