Manual Scheduling Configuration
In order to use manual start and finish dates within your chart, you need to:
Go to Settings | Scheduling, scroll to Manual Scheduling, and select Allow manual scheduling.
Select the field(s) that will store the manual Start, Finish, and/or Milestone dates. You can select date or date/time fields.
When manual scheduling is enabled:
If the selected scheduling fields already contain date values, Gantt will use those values to place tasks on the chart.
If a scheduling field value is updated in Jira, tasks on the Gantt chart will be rescheduled accordingly.
Dragging a task in the Gantt chart will update its associated Start, Finish, or Milestone field.
To learn more about manually scheduling from within your Gantt chart, see Scheduling Tasks.
If you do not have access to the selected field, or the field has not been added to the appropriate screens in Jira, you may receive a Field Editing Error.
If you use a mix of date and date/time fields for start and finish dates, both be treated as date fields.
Update both start and finish dates when dragging items
This option is only available when you have selected a manual scheduling field for both start and finish dates.
If this option is selected, dragging a taskbar to a new location on the timeline will update both its start and finish dates in Gantt and Jira.
If this option is not selected, only the start date will be updated. The finish date will continue to be automatically updated based on task estimates and dependency types.
If you have only provided a manual scheduling field for the finish date, moving the task will update the finish date only.
Use sprints for manual scheduling
When the Use sprints for manual scheduling option is selected, tasks can be scheduled to begin and end based on sprint dates.
When sprints are used for manual scheduling:
Tasks assigned to sprints are scheduled for the duration of those sprints, based on current sprint dates and future sprint estimates.
Work for each task is evenly distributed across its sprint duration.
For more information about sprint-based scheduling, see Planning with Sprints.
Prefer sprints over manual start and finish dates
If this option is selected, issues assigned to a sprint will automatically be scheduled based on that sprint.
If this option is not selected, issues with manual start or finish dates will be scheduled based on those, regardless of their sprint assignment.
To learn more, see Scheduling Precedence.
Backlog Board
Issues that are not assigned to a sprint (and do not have manual start or finish dates) will be placed in the Backlog panel, rather than on the timeline. You can assign those issues to sprints by dragging them onto the chart or using the Task Details Panel.
The available sprints will be based on the selected board.
You can only select one board for the backlog. If your chart includes issues that need to be assigned to sprints from another board, you can assign specific boards for each project using Slices.
Using sprints for manual scheduling requires Jira Software.
Use Resolution Date as the Finish Date
When this option is enabled, all resolved tasks and issue-based milestones that are not scheduled manually will be scheduled using the issue resolution date as the finish date.
This does not affect tasks with manually scheduled start or finish dates, or manually scheduled milestones – those items will continue to be scheduled based on the fields selected above.
Read-only Values
When manual scheduling is enabled, you can adjust task dates and work estimates by dragging task bars within your chart.
However, there are some instances where this is not possible:
You do not have permission to update the field, or the field was not added to the issues screen. When this occurs, Gantt will display a Jira flag to let you know.
You use a Formula to calculate the date, instead of a field. In this case, you will see "read-only" message below the field selector, and you will receive an error if you try to drag a task within your chart.
