Using the Miniature Milestones practice requires detailed, active management. Setting up mini milestones demands time and effort both from developers and their leaders. It requires an ongoing commitment to status reporting and tracking. The Miniature Milestones practice takes more management effort than other, less detailed approaches; however, those other approaches tend not to work. Saying that the use of mini milestones takes more time than other practices may be equivalent to saying that effective management takes more time than ineffective management.

A second side effect of Miniature Milestones is that it prevents a project leader from losing touch with the project. A leader who uses mini milestones is in regular contact with every person on the project every time a milestone is supposed to be done, which should be approximately every day. Lots of incidental communication takes place, and that helps with risk management, motivation, personnel issues, and most other management activities.