Create epics on the roadmap

Your project's roadmap pulls together the epics within a single project. You can use it to manage and gain insights about your epics.

Create an epic

To create an epic:

1. Select + Create Epic in the first column of the roadmap.

2. Give your epic a name, and click enter.

Your new epic will be added to the bottom of the list.

It’s also possible to create a new epic by hovering your mouse between two existing epics. The new epic will land in the middle of the list.

Add epics to your timeline

As soon as an epic’s created it appears in the Epic list on your roadmap. Epics are unscheduled by default, and won’t automatically appear on the timeline. This gives you control over when your epics appear on your timeline and encourages more accuracy during the planning stage.

To visualize the epic as a bar on the timeline, you will need to set a start and end date:

1. On your roadmap, select () Create epic. Give your epic a name, and press Enter.

2. Place the timeline bar to set the duration of the epic. You can do this in two ways:

   1. Hover your cursor over the timeline next to your newly created epic and click to place it into your roadmap. The epic bar has a default duration according to how you view your timeline. The default durations are based on your timeline view settings:

      • Weeks – 7 days

      • Months – 14 days

      • Quarters – 30 days

   2. Click and drag your cursor to set a custom length of time.

Roll up an epic’s start and end dates

When creating an epic, you can infer start and/or end dates based on the values of its child issues when there are no dates assigned to it. This is what’s referred to as a roll-up, and the dates automatically update as those of the child issues change. If you manually set a date, it will override any rolled-up dates.

If your roadmap is using these dynamic dates, you’ll see an arrow icon next to your schedule bars:

Rollups only work for scrum teams. If you try this with Kanban teams, the epic’s schedule bar will disappear.

To roll-up dates to your epic, right-click on an epic’s schedule bar and select Clear both dates.

Change your epic’s color

You can adjust the color of an epic directly on the roadmap. Simply right-click the epic and choose a fresh color.

Re-rank epics on your roadmap

To re-rank the order of your epics (and their child issues), drag and drop the epic’s name in the far left column on the timeline.