Target dates vs. due dates in Advanced Roadmaps. How best to use them?

[Michael Arndt]

So there's a target start and target end date and then there's start date and due date.  

I'm wondering what practical application these have. Due date seems clear but what's the difference between target start and start date? 

How do successful teams utilize these dates and is it even worth it? Looking for advice as much as clarity of what these are.

[Prince Nyeche · Accepted solution]

Hi @Michael Arndt 

You know on a Plan you can actually choose how dates are visualized on the Roadmap by clicking on the Cog wheel icon > Configure under Scheduling you can choose to use a specific date field on the roadmap. So target dates can be visualized if they were set there as the start and end dates to the date estimation.

[Michael Arndt · Accepted solution]

I may have found the answer.

Sounds like due dates are more like deadlines and target dates are more for long term planning.

[Neil Wills]

I am using a scrum board + sprints, my plan is using sprints. 

I used the Target Date but I do not see the visual indication that is suggested in the documentation - https://confluence.atlassian.com/advancedroadmapsserver/adding-target-dates-868977194.html

FYI - here is discusses using target dates to help with prioritizing suggested work in the future sprint 

https://support.atlassian.com/jira-software-cloud/docs/assign-capacity-from-your-timeline/

[Neil Wills]

Yes - target dates

[Michael Arndt]

Is there anyway to visualize the target dates on advances roadmaps?

[Neil Wills]

So what I ended up doing is using releases as milestone releases to UAT

And the epics are broken down so that they do not go beyond 4 sprints, beyond that then they are quarterly epics, and you can argue that an epic that is 1-2 months is also too long