A release is a container for work. When you create one — also called a schedule in some workspace types — you select a Release date. However, sometimes it is not clear how a release's Start date is determined.
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Create a new release
If you create a release using a template, the release's Start date will be based on the Start date of the earliest release phase or milestone, and the release's End date will be based on the end date for the latest release phase or milestone.
If you create a release without a template, the release won't have a Start date. By default, you will need to add one manually, unless a workspace owner in your workspace has changed the Record date default settings.
Start and End dates in your Aha! account are not associated with a timezone.
Calculate release dates from phases and features
In addition to manually entered Start and End dates in the Date range portion of a release, you also have the option to calculate a release's dates from its phases and features. If calculated, a release's dates will be determined by the Start date of the first release phase or feature and the End date of the last release phase or feature within the release. If a phase or feature's dates change in such a way that it affects your release's dates (even through an integration), your release's dates will update automatically.
The start of the release burndown chart will be based on the Development started on date found in the release details.
Release start dates and integrations
We've discussed how you can use a release's phases and features to calculate its Date range. However, if you send releases from Aha! Roadmaps to a development tool through an integration, that can change.
If you have mapped fields in your integration configuration so that the development tool updates releases' dates in Aha! Roadmaps, then your releases' date calculation type will change back to Enter manually, and will no longer calculate its dates based on its child phases and features.
You can resolve this in two different ways:
If Aha! Roadmaps records have the most accurate dates, then adjust your integration configuration so that release date fields are not mapped to the development tool.
If records in the development tool have the most accurate dates — if your engineering teams set their own release dates, for example — then leave your field mappings alone, and the development tool will continue to adjust Aha! Roadmaps release dates.