If you can use a deadline, then do that. Timers create queue objects that
run on a schedule, and over 3 years, you will do several MORs and possibly
a major upgrade. Lots and lots of long-running, queued up timers should
theoretically work fine, but I'd rather not have to worry about them for
that long.
We don't use deadlines because we don't have any tasks that have a
specific, easily identifiable deadline, and we didn't want to worry about
setting or changing them. Instead, we use Need Date in the change process
to communicate when something is or is not on time rather than trying to
put deadlines on each task within each change object's workflow.
Al
[solutions] - Timers and Deadlines in Workflow
Giri G