A project comprises a sequence of activities or task throughout its lifecycle. It involves planning, monitoring multiple tasks on a project.
Dependencies are the relationships among tasks which connects and show the relationship between preceding task and succeeding task. It determines the order in which activities need to be performed.
Why is it important to set task dependencies?
- Sequencing the work packages in a project.
- Scheduling the task to identify the start date and end date
- Resource requirement and resource allocation
- Calculating the critical path – longest sequence of activities.
- Identify Free Float, Total Float etc.
- Identify project risk and issues
There are four (4) types of dependency relationships.
Finish to Start: The first task or predecessor must finish before Successor can start.
Start to Start: The 2nd task does not start until predecessor task starts.
Finish to Finish: The 1st task or predecessor must finish before Successor can finish.
Start to Finish: The first task must start before Successor can finish.
In a project scenario, tasks may have multiple preceding tasks and multiple succeeding tasks. In order to built task relationship or dependencies, you will need a project management software that supports Gantt chart.