Good accounting practice requires that the debits must equal the credits. Strategy Execution also needs a form of checks and balances to be effective. When actual results deviate from plan, a good strategy execution process will notify the stakeholders so corrective action can be dialed in.

V2R "No Excuses" Strategy Execution (NESE) uses a goal linking process referred to as Manage-By-Milestone (MBM) to assure that goals and milestones assigned to associates are effectively completed in an efficient manner. Similar to debits and credits used in accounting, the MBM linking process has two sides. For every goal or milestone assignment managed with an MBM link, there is a Manager side and an Owner side. The Manager's side of the MBM link is created to monitor or oversee the assigned associate's performance. The Owner's side of the MBM link is created to assign goal or milestone responsibility to an associate.

Having two sides to an associate's goals or milestones allows contemporaneous actions to be documented through the MBM link between the Manager and the Owner. These contemporaneous actions are documented separately by the Manager and the Owner, but are viewed together by all parties including the Stakeholders. Contemporaneous actions enable all stakeholders to better understand the Owner's efforts that went into successfully completing the assignment along with the Manager's efforts to help the Owner succeed.

Any associate within the same organization can be assigned either the Manager or Owner role of a MBM link. There are two types of MBM links available in V2R. In all cases the Manager's link must be from their associate milestone. The Manager's milestone can be linked to either an Owner's goal or Owner's milestone per the following descriptions:

Milestone to Goal Link
A milestone to goal MBM link is established when the Manager's milestone is linked to an Owner's goal. This milestone to goal link makes it easy for the Manager to review everything that is going on with the goal.

The milestone to goal linking works best when the Owner's goal consists of multiple milestones that must be completed before the goal can be achieved. When the Manager selects their milestone to the Owner's goal link, they are shown the Owner's goal along with its milestones. All of the Owner's goal related information is presented to the Manager.

MBM linking works very well when a Project Manager (PM) enters Owner actions to update the current status of their project in anticipation of a management review meeting. The management team reviews the PM Owner's actions and then documents their discussion that occurred during the review meeting as Manager actions. When both the PM's Owner actions and the management team's Manager actions are viewed together, the checks and balances are in place to assure effective and efficient completion of the project goal.

Milestone to Milestone Link
A milestone to milestone MBM link is established when the Manager's milestone is linked to an Owner's milestone. This milestone to milestone link makes it easy for the Manager to review the linked milestone within the Owner's corresponding goal.

The milestone to milestone linking works best when the Owner's responsibility is assigned to a specific milestone. Completion of this one milestone essentially completes the assignment. When the Manager selects their milestone to the Owner's milestone link, they are shown the Owner's goal and the linked milestone is highlighted. All of the Owner's goal related information is presented to the Manager.

The contemporaneous actions documented by both the Manager and Owner are displayed together when milestone to milestone links are used.