How do a add a Release timeframe to my Jira Roadmap?

[Jerry Raterman]

I need to group tickets into project Phases on my Roadmap.  A JIRA Community SME recommended re-purposing a Jira Release feature for this.  I have 5 phases in my project, each with differing durations.  How can I format this?

[Kit Friend]

@Jerry Raterman you're best of exploring the use of Versions/Releases for this: https://confluence.atlassian.com/jirasoftwareserver/releases-in-advanced-roadmaps-1044784195.html 

Worth factoring in that you have to create both:

- Releases in each constituent project your plan is pulling in (which confusingly appears as "fixVersion" or "Version" as well as "Release" depending on where you are in the UI)

- A Cross-Project Release in Plans itself in order to tie those together

So let's say you've got 3 teams working across your 5 phases, you'd be creating:

- Phase A, Phase B, Phase C, Phase D, Phase E in EACH Team project

- Cross-project: Phase A, Phase B, Phase C, Phase D, Phase E in your plan, linking to each of them

Jira makes it a bit nicer by allowing you to align all the dates etc when you do the cross-project release setup, but it's still a bit of a faff the first time you do it.