Can I have a graphical indication of the DueDate in the Gantt Chart ?

[Alex Lazar]

Hello! 

While using  Structure alongside Gantt chart I have created a story which is started on 27.01.2020 , has an Original Estimate of 2w so its corresponding line is drawn correctly on the Gantt chart. The problem is that the DueDate which is set to 12.03.2020 is nowhere to be seen on the Gantt chart. Is it possible to have a graphical indication of the DueDate in the Gantt chart? 

Thanks and best regards,
Alex

[Stepan Kholodov _ALM Works_]

Hello Alex,

The Start and the Finish dates have indicators on the chart(the vertical lines on each end of a task's bar) when these dates are taken from Jira fields and these fields are set in the chart's configuration in the Manual Scheduling section. If there is no indication on either end of the bar, then one or both dates are being calculated automatically. To have indications on the chart for the Start and for the Finish dates, both set fields need to have values in Jira.
https://wiki.almworks.com/display/gantt/Automatic+Scheduling
https://wiki.almworks.com/display/gantt/Manual+Scheduling+by+Start+or+Finish+Date

Also, for automatically calculated dates you can add columns - Gantt Start Date & Gantt Finish Date - in your structure and see the dates right there.

I hope this helps. If you need further assistance, please feel free to contact us at support.almworks.com and we'll be glad to help.

Best regards,
Stepan Kholodov
ALM Works

[Alex Lazar]

Hello Stepan!

Thanks for your answer!  I have a graphical indication of Start And Finish Dates according to estimations but you know that the duration of a task is one thing and the Due date (for example the Date on which this tasks needs to be on production) is another thing. So I would like to have a line on the Gantt chart that shows also the Due Date (which is usually in the future -after the Finish Date) . 

 My problem is that now I have no graphical indication of this Due Date -this will help me to see when to Start a project (which I know that will take 2 weeks) if the Due Date is 2 month from now . 

Best Regards,
Alex.

[Stepan Kholodov _ALM Works_]

If I understand correctly, the Due Date field is not taken into consideration when tasks are scheduled. If this is so, then I'm afraid Due Date is not a standard element that can be displayed on a chart.

As a workaround, an extra task can be created and turned into a Milestone. You can set the Due Date field for its date in the configuration. So when you create a structure with tasks for the future project and this extra task has a Due Date, you just turn into a Milestone on a chart and it will be scheduled accordingly. You can also create dependencies from tasks to it for better planning visualization and an indication of scheduling conflicts if the project gets delayed.

Best regards,
Stepan Kholodov

[Alex Lazar]

The Due Date it is taken into consideration as a limit that cannot be passed so it is very needed to be seen in the graph. It is not influencing the estimation of the task but it is influencing the Start Date since Start Date + Estimation =FinishDate which should be before DueDate .  

So to answer your question DueDate is taken into consideration when scheduling a task :  (example) if I start a task on day X how much time do I have until DueDate with current estimations ? What about if I start the task on day X+5 ? etc 

[Stepan Kholodov _ALM Works_]

Hello Alex,

Apologies for not seeing your answer sooner, I didn’t get the notification somehow.

By default, a task is scheduled by a Start date(that is set in your case by a user) and its Finish date is either set by a user as well(and its estimate is ignored) or it is calculated by adding the estimate to a given Start date. Due Date is not taken into account by default, it's not shown on the chart as a stand-alone element and it doesn’t limit the Finish date in any way, i.e. if it's not explicitly specified otherwise in the configuration, a task’s Finish date will be after its Due Date if its Start date+Estimate calculation results in a later date.

If using a Milestone as Due Date and having it shown on a chart as an indicator, you can use the Fix Versions indicator for this by doing the following:

• open your project settings | Versions | add a version which you can name ‘Due Date’ and set its release date to match project's tasks' Due Date.
• open Gantt chart settings and select the project in the 'Fix Version Timeline Settings' field. This will create dotted-line indicators on the chart for every project’s Fix version that have the release date, so if there is only one release date for the 'Due Date' version, it will be act as the needed marker on the chart.

Best regards,

Stepan Kholodov

ALM Works