Dividing the year into trimesters (4 months)

[Tommy Hjelm]

Our planning schedule is based on dividing the year into three periods (trimesters) as opposed to four periods (quarters). Also, our planning year starts February to avoid big planning sessions in December and Summer holidays. 

Is there any way to define these measurements in JPD? The timeline becomes a less valuable tool as it is now.

[Alex Ortiz · Accepted solution]

@Tommy Hjelm Welcome to the Atlassian Community.

Good news:  You can change the starting month for your year.

Bad news:  You can only have quarters.

Keep an eye on Atlassian's JPD public roadmap. Others have had this problem as well: https://atlassian-product-managers.atlassian.net/jira/discovery/share/views/a0af4caf-5f1b-42be-8c57-24d1080122bc

Here's how you change the starting month. 

As an Atlassian administrator, go to the gear -> Jira Apps -> Jira Product Discovery on the Left -> Dates.  There, you'll be able to change your starting month.

[Tanguy Crusson]

Hi @Tommy Hjelm , quick clarifying question: did you mean quadrimester? (trimester is 3 months = quarters). do you have 3 periods of 4 months? 

If that's the case then I'd suggest you use the "monthly" option instead of the "quarterly" one (which only works with quarters/trimesters)

[Tommy Hjelm]

Haha, thanks for asking, @Tanguy Crusson. I went back and forth on  trimester/quadrimester. Technically, a trimester is a third of a pregnancy (three months) and a third of a year (four months). 
But you are right, we have divided the year into three parts. (Feb-May, June-Sept, Oct-Jan). In planning long term dev, having the ability to input a range makes sense. Our compnay doesn't use quarters at all. So this fundamentally valuable feature doesn't add value to us. the ability the define the year as a global feature, however, would.

Thanks

[Tanguy Crusson]

Thanks for clarifying! That makes a lot of sense.