Why are Releases not shown on my timeline.

[Andrew Barlow]

I don't see releases on my time line.  I see them if I hit the "Auto Schedule" button. At which point I'm selecting the "Highlight on Timeline option". 

As soon as I hit the "Accept Changes" button, they're gone:

Why is this?  What to have to do to keep releases on the timeline? 

[Dave · Accepted solution]

Hi @Andrew Barlow ,

It sounds like your releases don't have fixed start and end dates - what we would refer to as a dynamic release. When you run the auto-scheduler the dates of the release are calculated and the release appears on the timeline (because it now has dates). However, when you accept the changes the release returns to a state of being dynamic again.

Ideally we should be visualising dynamic releases on the timeline and this is something of a limitation of the current interface. Unfortunately it's not a high priority for us to add this (relative to other features that we are working on) so I can't give you an expectation of when this will be addressed.

The workaround is to give your releases a fixed end date.

I appreciate that this probably isn't the most satisfying answer but hopefully should explain what is happening,

Regards,

Dave

[Andrew Barlow]

Thanks for the explanation Dave.  Given that a calculation of the earliest possible release date is exactly what I'm using the product for, that is a little disappointing.  It doesn't strike me as the hardest change to make in the product, so if you could find the development time to implement the display of dynamic release dates I'd certainly appreciate it. 

Many thanks! 

[Chris Melville]

This is crucial functionality for me too.  I have an open case on it.  Supporting this is FAR more important than the more or less worthless dependency map feature.

[Dave]

I do appreciate your need here and I'm certainly not dismissing it. The challenge is that if we talk to ten different users we will get ten different top priorities for what we should be delivering next. We obviously want to keep as many people satisfied as possible but generally that's quite hard to achieve.

As a case in point - you might not see the value in the dependency map feature, but it's something that's been broadly (although obviously not universally) well received - and we receive a lot of requests for further enhancements (such as adding additional filters and allowing the creation / editing of dependencies). That isn't to say we're going to be making those changes - I just use it as an example to illustrate the competing priorities that exist.

It's completely understandable that people have different perspectives on what is and isn't important and we try to understand and address those as best we can. I just want to set expectations realistically as possible and not make false promises about what is and isn't likely to be delivered.

Regards,

Dave

[Andrew Barlow]

Thanks for the further explanation Dave, that's pretty much what I tell our customers too and I do understand the many demands for development time.  I would just like to add to my request for this feature that you're calling this product "Advanced Roadmaps",   a roadmap that doesn't show the destination is not terribly helpful!  Many thanks!

[Dave]

No worries @Andrew Barlow - thanks for being understanding. I'm certainly not disagreeing with you here and your request has been noted!