Dependency project management is a strategic approach to organizing, executing, and tracking projects involving multiple interconnected tasks, resources, and stakeholders.

This technique is crucial for a complex business environment, enabling companies to navigate intricate relationships between project components and ensure seamless execution from beginning to end.

When you apply dependency management, organizations can optimize their project workflows, minimize risks, and improve efficiency. This allows managers to make informed decisions, allocate resources effectively, and identify potential bottlenecks before they become critical issues.

This ultimately results in increased productivity, cost savings, and higher project success rates.

So, if you want to learn all you need about dependency management in your projects, this is for you. We will drive you through the critical path, constraints, and resources to help you determine how to use dependencies to boost your projects’ success rate.

A project dependency is a task that depends on other activities and must be completed sequentially and following specific requirements.

Depending on the stage and the entire project's presentation, dependent tasks have multiple relations with other activities.

The best example is Task A, which must end before Task B starts. Hence, they follow a logical path the project manager must manage to ensure the best results.

There is certain terminology project managers and people that will be managing project dependencies must know to communicate with stakeholders.

Resource Availability

Your project team has limited resources to work with. You must understand how to use them to complete each task and meet the stakeholders’ expectations.

Resources could be:

• Workers

• Devices

• Software

• Money

Essentially, a resource is everything you could use to complete a task.

Constraints

Constraints are restrictions that any manager has to face during their project development. They are boundaries you’ll have to live with depending on multiple factors such as:

• Cost

• Time

• Project’s scope

• Company goals

A good project manager knows their task management will always have some constraints, and they'll work based on that.

For example, you have a complex project that requires three marketers, and you only can afford one. Then, all tasks that demand this professional will depend on each other, hence a project constraint.

Critical Path

The critical path is created by all the necessary activities that lead to the successful completion of a project.

Tasks inside the critical path are known for having attributes like:

• They can’t be delayed

• The entire project depends on them

• They require the resources available

Whether they are easy or complex projects, the tasks involved in the critical path are essential for any project plan.

Lead

The Lead concept applies to “Finish to Start” relationships and refers to the time when managers accelerate succeeding tasks based on preceding tasks.

The idea is that you reduce the project’s delivery time by boosting activities in the critical path.

Lag Time

Lag time is the delay that occurs during a project phase or managing a particular task. This event isn’t restricted to task relationships.

Think about any activity that requires waiting until you start a new task.

Managing projects is much more than just giving guidelines to stakeholders and hiring skilled professionals.

You must understand when many dependencies start, if you need additional resources, and how to schedule activities.

Overall, these are the benefits of planning projects with dependencies in mind:

1. Investment Control: Controlling a budget without a project charter is not easy. Fortunately, dependencies allow you to moderate investments in every stage and make the most out of them. This preferential relationship between tasks gives you more control and reduces concerns that arise.

2. Correct Scheduling: A PM knows how to plan projects and prepare reviews or scrums so that other tasks aren’t affected. And when you have dependencies, you can plan for them and stick to the timeline you have determined.

3. Resource Utilization: Every project has limited resources. When using dependencies, you can choose resources to fulfill tasks. With enough materials and staff, you can avoid potential risks.

4. Better Observation and Leadership: Working with dependencies gives you more observation and problem-solving skills. You can identify outside factors that otherwise could result in constraints. Directly, you become a better leader who provides high-quality deliverables.

There are five types of project dependencies that you must consider when you manage dependencies in-project.

They can appear depending on the scenario and provoke certain constraints you must solve.

External Dependencies

External dependencies are unforeseen events that could happen and that you can’t control. They could potentially harm a process and all the tasks within it.

Business activities are susceptible to these dependencies, and you can only have a backup plan to avoid repercussions.

An example of an external dependency is suppliers' delay when delivering merchandise. This could potentially harm the entire production process.

Internal Dependencies

They are also known as Logical Dependencies or Causal Dependencies. They are part of the project’s development process and can’t be avoided. As a causal dependency, it can’t start before a preceding task finishes.

The best example of a logical dependency is a car engine. You can’t start until all its pieces are purchased and available.

Preferential Dependencies

Preferential dependencies appear when you schedule tasks that follow specific standards. They depend on team members and stakeholders.

In comparison to other dependencies that follow a logical relationship, you can skip preferential dependencies and still complete the project. However, you could expect quality issues if they aren’t developed.

Resource Dependencies

Resource-based dependencies come from project constraints due to the fact they deal with resource-sharing situations.

When an activity shares resources with other tasks, they will become dependent on each other, and it's when delays could happen.

Cross-team Dependencies

The cross-team dependency appears in big companies. This happens when multiple staff work on the same project and rely on each other to complete the task.

For example, the engineering team trusts the marketing teams to bring consumer information to improve their final product.

As a project manager, you must decide which is the first and second task. When you do this, you’ll be using a specific task dependency to complete your project.

A good example would be cooking a meal. One task (a) involves getting materials, and activity (b) is preparing the food. Hence, the predecessor activity must start and finish before you can continue with the successor activity.

Here we will see the different kinds of task dependencies and when to use them.

Finish to Start (FS)

The Finish to Start relationship states that a task can’t start before you finish a previous operation.

This relation between two tasks is based on a cause-and-effect event. This dependency helps managers identify delays that could affect the project in real-life examples.

For example, you can’t play a game without buying the right console.

Start to Finish (SF)

This dependency task flow states that a previous task can’t be completed until a successor task starts. It’s the least used of all the dependencies, but it can still work when two or more tasks are dependent.

This kind of relationship is seen in the hospital’s ER; the night shift guard can’t leave until the morning shift arrives.

Finish to Finish (FF)

A task will only finish after the precedent activity finishes. This dependency takes part in multiple project stages. It explains that a new dependency could finish during the predecessor task development.

This allows different stages to run simultaneously, but task B cannot end before A.

The best example is a marketer must develop a marketing plan before the business executes it.

Start to Start (SS)

In this relationship, a task can’t start before another one initiates. This methodology allows businesses to have two processes simultaneously without being dependent on each other.

After understanding the task dependencies workflows, you have to consider how to manage them.

Here’s what you have to look for:

Visualize to Manage Dependencies

When preparing a project plan, record and visualize data with Gantt charts and other types of graphics to identify dependencies.

This will help you reduce risks and avoid complications as your project activity progresses.

Managing dependencies is difficult, but you can meet the stakeholders' expectations once you start to see where they come from and the critical path.

Help Stakeholders Understand Dependencies

Project managers have something clear; they must speak with stakeholders and involve them through all the dependencies.

This will help them stay on the same page and understand the project's requirements.

It’s also a way to limit risks.

Review the Project Plan With Your Team

Establishing trust is all about being transparent. So, when you have a project outline, ensure you share it with the rest of the team to maintain a linear workflow, create leadership and collaboration.

Address doubts and questions while also asking about their difficulties in past projects to avoid constraints.

Prepare a Risk Log

Handling dependencies means managing risk.

Projects are vulnerable to events that could hinder their development, and sometimes you don’t have control over them.

So, to have all the constraints and threats controlled, you’ll need a Risk Log. Use it to list them and prevent problems no matter the different types of dependencies you encounter.

Establish Contingency Plans

After learning about dependencies and risks, you have only a limited number of moves to ensure your project is completed.

You must develop a contingency plan that allows your business to stay on float even if the project manager is fired. Each team member must be aware of it and assess it.

This will give you more damage control and increase the project’s success rate.

Optional Procedures

When working as a project manager, there are things you should allow team members to do to find better ways of completing tasks.

Some of the things you can do are:

• Urge them to find a new angle using strategies when threats and constraints appear.

• Set up an adaptability example giving information about past dependency situations.

No matter the dependency type, you must follow the same process to identify them. It’s an important part of your project management tasks and helps ensure all stakeholders work in the same outline.

Here’s what you have to do:

1. Create a project task map.

2. Check all the activities to do and find those impossible to complete until a previous task is finished.

3. Take notes of the events that could happen – constraints – if they are not fulfilled first.

4. Separate your dependencies.

The best practice here is creating a Gantt chart or another graph to identify them quickly. You can then show your team the dependent tasks to prioritize and follow the four types of task dependency flows.

To prepare your first dependency project management document, you’ll need a productivity software where you can design, edit and share documents.

Microsoft Office 2021 will provide programs like Excel to explore dependencies and constraints. You can then craft understandable project charters and management sheets that even have a network diagram.

You can get an Office 2021 Pro Plus Key BIND Retail Global for a few dollars and activate all the suite’s features. Start working on your forms and ensure you have a plan that your stakeholders can follow.

And, if you don’t have time to waste preparing a project charter or other management forms, you can always use templates.

We’ve crawled the internet and found options for you based on your dependency project management needs:

Template #1

Gantt Chart Dependency Project Management Template, to show more precise tasks and dependencies - Download Link

Template #2

Status Report Template, to provide information about current tasks and deliverables - Download Link

Dependency project management is a vital approach to addressing the intricate nature of current projects. It ensures that all interconnected components are proficiently managed and executed.

When businesses adopt this methodology, they optimize their workflows, mitigate risks, and foster a culture of collaboration and adaptability. This is why it’s crucial to recognize and manage dependencies to unlock the project’s full potential and maximize results.

Organizations can effectively handle the challenges of interconnected tasks, resources, and stakeholders with appropriate tools, techniques, and best practices.

The business world is dynamic and constantly presents new challenges. So, prioritizing dependency management is not only essential to understand dependency complexity, but it's also an investment in your organization's future.