janellecipriano Dependency Mapping
Make every cross-team and external dependency visible, owned, and dated — and surface the ones that threaten the timeline.
When to use
- Coordinating delivery that spans multiple teams or vendors.
- Diagnosing what's blocking progress or building a dependency view for a plan/review.
Inputs to gather
- The deliverables/milestones and their target dates.
- For each: what's needed from another team/vendor, and what others need from you.
- Known owners on both sides and any commitments already made.
Process
- List dependencies as directional edges: A needs X from B by date D.
- For each, capture: provider, consumer, what, needed-by date, provider's committed date, status, and owner.
- Flag a dependency at risk when there's no committed date, the committed date is after needed-by, or the owner is unconfirmed.
- Identify the critical path — the chain of dependencies that, if any slips, slips the whole project.
- Note circular/mutual dependencies and sequencing conflicts explicitly.
- Recommend actions: confirm owners, get commitments, decouple where possible, add buffer.
Output format
## Dependency Map — {{project}}
| ID | What | Provider → Consumer | Needed by | Committed | Status | Owner | At risk? |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
### Critical path
{{ordered chain with dates}}
### At-risk dependencies & recommended actions
- {{dependency}} — {{why at risk}} → {{action, owner, by when}}
If a visual helps, offer a simple text/Mermaid dependency diagram.