01 · Purpose
Why and when to use it
Why?
It makes hidden reliance on other teams visible before the project commits to dates or promises outcomes.
When?
Start in Define and update it whenever plans, interfaces or external commitments change.
Who takes part? The project leader reviews dependencies with the owners of the required resources, decisions and deliverables.
02 · Application
How to apply it
Start with: Proposed deliverables, interfaces, approval routes, resource needs and other projects affecting the same process.
- For each deliverable, ask what must be ready or decided first.
- Identify the owner of each dependency and agree a required date.
- Confirm the commitment rather than assuming availability.
- Assess the consequence of a late or incomplete input.
- Record a fallback or escalation route.
- Review status and feed confirmed sequencing constraints into the network and time plans.
03 · Example
A warehouse dispatch project
Original illustrative example. All quantities, targets, roles and timings below are fictional teaching assumptions, not findings from a real project.
| Dependency | Owner / required time | Consequence and response |
|---|---|---|
| Order timestamps available | Data owner; before baseline collection | Missing fields prevent timeliness measurement; validate a manual sample as a fallback. |
| Shift staff released for observation | Shift manager; week 2 | One shift may be underrepresented; agree coverage before collection. |
| Carrier interface agreement | Transport coordinator; before pilot | Pilot may miss collection cutoff; confirm the handover requirement. |
04 · Interpretation
What the result tells you
A named dependency with no confirmed owner commitment is still unresolved. “Data available” is insufficient: the team needs usable fields, access and a date.
Completion check: A dependency register with required inputs, owners, dates, commitments and fallback actions.
05 · Judgement
Mistakes and limitations
Common mistakes
- Writing a list without owners or required dates.
- Confusing a dependency with a risk: the dependency is required; uncertainty about it creates a risk.
- Assuming another project’s date is guaranteed.
Limits of the tool
Dependencies can change outside the team’s control. Tracking them improves coordination but cannot remove uncertainty; material changes require replanning.
07 · Reading
Sources and further reading
Toolset backbone: Six Sigma+Lean Toolset: Mindset for Successful Implementation of Improvement Projects, second edition, edited by Stephan Lunau, with Renata Meran, Alexander John, Olin Roenpage and Christian Staudter (Springer, 2013). This reference identifies the toolset; the book text was not available for a chapter-level comparison in this development pass. The explanations, application sequence and fictional examples here are original LeanTrainingLab teaching material. Linked readings provide background; they do not prescribe every example or target.