
These dependencies are outside the control of project managers or teams and rely on 3rd parties or outside vendors for completion. This dependency tends to exist when two or more teams are needed for the completion of a project. In larger companies, cross-team dependencies pose a serious challenge. For example, when painting the interior of a house, the order in which the rooms and walls are painted is chosen based on a various factors such as the furniture removal, current needs and preferences. They are institutionalized to focus on the quality of the product. These are dependencies determined by best protocols, practices, and preferred processes. For example, within technical user stories, there could be internal constraints with lack of skills of not understanding technical terms or processes. Meaning, if all resources are present, all tasks and activities can be completed together. These are based on constraints and have no causal dependency.

Each task is dependent on the completion of the previous and avoiding one step or task in the process will lead to a failed project. For example, to bake bread you need to first buy the ingredients, then mix them together, then put it in a oven and finally wait for it to bake.

These dependencies are found in the natural flow of tasks within a project. There are different types of dependencies in project management that can be categorized in many ways depending on relationships, conditions, and other factors. Please watch the video tutorial below to set task dependencies. You have to just double click a task to set task dependencies. Task dependencies can be easily set in Gantt Excel. Gantt Excel allows you to move tasks up and down easily. The predecessor task should ideally be placed on top and the successor task below. Its good practice to stack the dependent tasks on top of each other in the order in which they should be completed. But with brainstorming and identifying the flow of tasks, a project manager can mitigate the chances of project mishaps. Sometimes it is overwhelming to manage task dependencies. You may need to divide work into smaller tasks and subtasks as necessary so work can continue moving across the project at a uniform pace. Ideally, you’ll want to think through all possible dependencies before creating a workflow. The good thing about using a gantt chart tool like Gantt Excel is that it brings a lot of dependencies to surface. Identify All Task Dependencies within the Project.
