Tasks on their own can make it hard to see the bigger picture. Milestones and epics group them, so you can follow progress towards a deadline or a large piece of work without counting tasks by hand.
- A milestone is a point in time you are working towards, such as Beta launch on 1 March. It has a due date.
- An epic is a large piece of work made up of many tasks, such as Online payments. It has a start date, a target end date and is either open or done.
A task can belong to a milestone and an epic at the same time.
Before you start
Projects are on the Professional and Enterprise plans.
Add a milestone
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Create it
In the project, add a new milestone. Give it a name, a short description and the Due Date. Pick an icon and colour so it is easy to spot.
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Attach the tasks
Open the milestone and use Attach a task to add the tasks that must be done by the due date. To take one out, detach it.
Add an epic
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Create it
Add a new epic with a name, a description, a start date and a target end date, plus an icon and colour.
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Attach the tasks
Open the epic and attach every task that is part of it. You can also set a task's milestone and epic from the task itself.
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Mark it done
When the work is finished, change the epic's status from open to done.
See how it is going
Each milestone and epic has its own page with its tasks shown as a board, a list or a grouped list. Its report shows how many tasks there are, how many are complete, the story points, the overall progress and how many days are left, with a breakdown of the tasks. Overdue tasks are flagged so they do not slip past unnoticed.
Keep milestones few and meaningful. A handful of milestones that matter to the business is more useful than one for every week.
See also plan and run sprints.