Wouldn’t it be great if projects existed in isolation? Project managers would have full control over the project environment, users would never change their minds about requirements because of something they saw elsewhere, and you’d never be caught out by a shift in office politics.
Unfortunately, that never happens.
Projects are always dependent on something else or someone else, and if you are lucky enough not to have significant dependencies on your project, chances are that another project depends on you. Managing project dependencies is a core skill for project managers, and here we take a look at the four major types of dependencies.
Upstream Internal Dependencies
Upstream internal dependencies are things that your project is reliant on happening before something else can happen. These things need to happen ‘upstream’ and then flow down into your project. For example, your user testing can’t happen unless the software is actually designed and built. ‘Software design and build’ is an upstream dependency on later project tasks.
As you can guess from the title, upstream internal dependencies are things within the scope of your project. Track the dependency lines on a Gantt chart to the left of a task and you’ll see the tasks that need to happen first.
Top tip: Project managers tend to spend more time focusing on what comes next than what has to come first. Track the progress of upstream dependencies so that you can reforecast future tasks if necessary.
Upstream External Dependencies
Upstream external dependencies are also things that need to happen before a certain activity on your project plan can take place, but they are out of the scope of your project. You may still have them marked on the project plan, but they are placeholder tasks there for information (or for dependency tracking). An example would be that the new shop needs to open before it will stock your products. Building and opening the shop is not in scope of a project to launch a new product, but you may have made a note of it as part of your plans for product distribution in a later project phase.
External dependencies can also be part of other projects, especially in a program, so your project may be waiting on deliverables or staff from another project before it can continue.
Top tip: Make sure that the relevant people outside your project know that you are waiting on them in order to carry on with your own work, as they may not realize. Explain the impact of any late delivery and encourage them to keep you informed of progress.
Downstream Internal Dependencies
It’s not difficult to work out that if upstream dependencies have to happen before a task can be carried out, downstream dependencies happen afterwards. Internal dependencies again mean that the subsequent task is within the scope of the project: track the dependency lines on a Gantt chart to the right to see what comes next. It’s really important to keep an eye on these, as any slippage in the task in hand will have an impact on the downstream dependency. Your project team could be sitting around waiting for work if an activity is not completed on schedule.
Top tip: These are often the easiest to manage, but make sure your enterprise project management tool is up to date with all the relevant links between tasks, so that any shifts in the timeline are instantly clear and can be recalculated.
Downstream External Dependencies
These are dependencies that other projects or initiatives have on your project. Your project has to complete something before another team can start their work. This is most apparent in a program where your project is one of the earlier initiatives and is required to deliver something that forms the underpinning structure for a later project. It could also relate to portfolio resourcing, where your project team members are lined up to work on other things once your requirement of them is complete.
Top tip: As obvious as it may sound, make sure that the people downstream know what you are doing and that you are aware that they are waiting on your project to complete something. As soon as you can, let them know that the work is done or release the resources, so that you don’t hold up other work in the company.
How many of these types of dependencies does you project have?