Why a Tasks Start/End Date is not constrained by the Sub-Tasks Start/End Dates ?

Question

Hi,

I am using "Project management" Template for Jira Work Management:

- I created a Task and 2 Sub-Tasks
- I defined a Start/End Date for each Sub-Task
- Eventually I will finish the Sub-Tasks and set Status as Done

I would expect that once I create Sub-Tasks, the Start/End date of the Task would be defined by the minimum Sub-Tasks Start dates and maximum Sub-Tasks End dates.
Why does Jira still let me define the Start/end date of the Task ?
It is something that happens when I deal with Gantt Charts.

Thanks

Trudy P Claspill · Answer

Hello @EasyLOB

Welcome to the Atlassian community.

Jira is highly customizable, and clients may have different definitions and use cases for Start and End dates. Therefore Atlassian doesn't dictate how they can be used.

Jira does not assume how the client would want the parent tasks set because of the ways in which the relationship between sub-tasks and their parents may change. For example a sub-task could be moved from one issue to another, or more sub-tasks with additional dates can be added.

Also, what if the parent task has no subtasks? Wouldn't you want to be able to set the parent task's Start and End dates in that case?

If you want the Start and End dates of a parent task set automatically based on the dates in its subtasks, you could create Automation Rules to do that.

https://support.atlassian.com/cloud-automation/docs/jira-cloud-automation/

Avery_6xay6u · Answer

Jira doesn't automatically adjust a Task's dates based on Sub-Tasks. You can set Task dates manually, but for automatic updates, you’d need a Gantt chart tool or similar add-on that handles date dependencies.