Display sequential initiatives on a single line in roadmaps

We are trying to represent on a roadmap the phases of an activity as a sequence of initiatives on a single line, e.g.:

|------------Jan -------------|----------- Feb -------------|--------- March ------------|

Project A – Phase 1 Project A – Phase 2 Project A – Phase 3

<--------------------------> <--------------------------> <------------------------->

Unfortunately this is not possible: what we get is rather:

|------------Jan -------------|----------- Feb -------------|--------- March ------------|

Project A – Phase 1

<-------------------------->

Project A – Phase 2

<------------------------->

Project A – Phase 3

<------------------------->

Or:

|---------------Jan ----------|----------- Feb -------------|--------- March ------------|

Project A – Phase 1 Project A – Phase 3

<--------------------------> <------------------------->

Project A – Phase 2

<------------------------->

This happens even when labels or bars don’t overlap. Also, this makes roadmaps with hundreds of initiative unreadable.

We checked with support: the reason is that the actual length of the bar is the SUM of bar length + label length + buffer. The rational is that when scrolling right on the roadmap, the bars start to leave the visible portion of the roadmap and as you scroll right and the bars run off the left end of the viewable portion of the roadmap, the labels will float towards the right side of the bars until the bars are no longer visible.

For example:

|---------------Jan ----------|----------- Feb -------------|--------- March ------------|

Project A – Phase 1 Project A – Phase 3

<--------------------------> <------------------------->

Project A – Phase 2

<------------------------->

Scrolling right the bar moves left and the label for Phase 1 floats to the right:

------|----------- Feb -------------|--------- March ------------|

Project A – Phase 1 Project A – Phase 3

--> <------------------------->

Project A – Phase 2

<------------------------->

So the feature of having the label floating all the way right when scrolling right prevents displaying the initiatives side by side on the same line.

We believe that displaying initiatives side by side on the same line when bars or labels don’t overlap is essential, and that not having the labels floating all the way right when scrolling right would be a minor nuisance. Therefore when scrolling right the label should stop floating when it reaches the right end of the bar. For example:

|---------------Jan ----------|----------- Feb -------------|--------- March ------------|

Project A – Phase 1 Project A – Phase 2 Project A – Phase 3

<--------------------------> <--------------------------> <------------------------->

Scrolling right:

-------|----------- Feb -------------|--------- March ------------|

se 1 Project A – Phase 2 Project A – Phase 3

---> <--------------------------> <------------------------->

The actual length of the bar should then be the bigger between bar length OR label length (+ buffer), not their sum.