> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://leancpm.org/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Target Dates

> Anticipated start and finish as identified by the planner or worker

The flexibility of LeanCPM allows users to display tasks as starting and finishing on any date they choose.

<Callout title="Minimum requirement" type="warn">
  Tasks must be in a valid [dependency path](terms/dependencies#valid-dependency-path) to enable Target Dates.
</Callout>

## Target Start

The date the user expects the task to start.

## Target Finish

When the task is Not Started, this is calculated as Expected Start + Duration.

When the task is Started, it’s calculated as the Actual Start + Duration

## When Target dates lock

There are a few situations for a task when its target start date is locked and cannot be changed:

1. When the task is started, finished, or completed.
2. When all of the task’s blockers are [cleared](/terms/dependencies#cleared-blockers)

<Callout title="No blockers" type="info">
  If an unstarted task has no blockers (cleared or not), its Target Start will be set to the current date.

  The most common way to set a project’s first task is to attach it to a Milestone first.
</Callout>

A task’s target dates can be unlocked by simply adding a milestone, an un-started task, or an uncleared issue as a blocker.

## Expected Finish

In legacy CPM, there is an “Expected Finish” field that can be changed after a task has started to help calculate the Remaining Duration. There is no concept of “Expected Finish” in Lean CPM; instead, we use [Ai-nticipated Dates](/terms/ainticipated_dates).

## Target vs Planned

Legacy CPM has a concept of Planned, or Original dates, which is the same as the Early Dates but is frozen once the activity has started. This is beneficial because it shows us how late an activity started based on the last schedule update in which it hadn’t started yet.

However, there are a few shortcomings: first is we assume that activities should

This should go a step further, as it doesn’t capture the true essence of how late tasks start.