# Dependencies and milestones as decision points > Find what waits for what, including the dependency nobody wrote down, and turn milestones into questions with a decision ready for each answer. - Course: [Project Management Without the Bureaucracy: Run One Project from Brief to Closure](https://productovi.com/courses/project-management-without-bureaucracy.md) - Module: Time: dependencies and the critical path - Lesson 9/32, ~22 min - Source: https://productovi.com/courses/project-management-without-bureaucracy/dependencies-and-milestones ## Roman's December **Alex Tutor:** November at Klasna. Leo signed the scope: the 17 musts plus the waiting list, the level report and the January ads, with a drop order. This module asks when: what waits for what, and whether 1 February holds. **Sofia:** Roman sent his plan: sourcing in November, onboarding the tutors in the first week of December, so they have all of December to prepare. **Alex Tutor:** Sounds sensible. Now ask what onboarding needs before it can start. **Vira:** Tutors who passed a demo lesson with me. And I run demo lessons on the final curriculum, not on drafts. **Sofia:** And the curriculum is final only after your review, on 15 December. So onboarding can't start before late December at the earliest. **Alex Tutor:** That's the **hidden dependency**: onboarding waits for demo lessons, which wait for the curriculum, which waits for one person's review. Nobody wrote the chain down, so Roman's plan looked fine. > **Exercise:** Why couldn't Roman's plan (onboarding in the first week of December) work? ## Three kinds of dependency **Alex Tutor:** A **dependency** is a link where one piece of work can't start or finish until another does. Ask where each link comes from. **Alex Tutor:** Logical: the work needs another's output, like demo lessons needing the final curriculum. Through people: the same person can't do two things at once. Outside: someone beyond the project, like a contractor or Leo's written decision. **Danylo:** Mine is outside, then. The test build is half done by a contractor, and their calendar isn't mine. **Vira:** And mine is the people kind. My review, the demo lessons and the question bank all land on me in the same weeks. **Alex Tutor:** Most schedules show only the logical links. The other two are where plans quietly break. > **Exercise:** Match each dependency with its kind. **Alex Tutor:** Look at Vira's December more closely. > **Exercise:** Vira's curriculum review, the demo lessons and the diagnostic question bank all land on her in the same December weeks. What is the most useful way to see this? ## Milestones that decide something **Leo:** Fine. Put milestones in, so I can see progress. "Kick-off done", "Design done", that sort of thing. **Alex Tutor:** A **milestone** is a point with no duration of its own, marking that something important is done. Its real use is as a decision point, not a decoration. **Alex Tutor:** So phrase each one as a question with a date: "By 25 December, do we have 8 tutors who passed a demo lesson?" And decide now what you'll do if the answer is no. **Vira:** If it's six, I'd rather open with six good tutors and a capped number of learners than rush two more through. **Alex Tutor:** That's a prepared decision, but it changes a success criterion, so it goes to Leo in writing. Prepared now, it takes him a day, not a week. > **Exercise:** **True or false:** a milestone is a short task, usually a day or two, at an important point of the schedule. **Alex Tutor:** Try a milestone that comes back “no”. > **Exercise:** On 25 December only 6 tutors have passed a demo lesson. Vira's prepared plan B: open with 6 good tutors and cap the number of learners. What happens next? ## The milestones of the launch **Sofia:** Then the milestones are the points where waiting chains meet: units drafted, the curriculum final, 8 tutors passed, the test passed its pilot, go or no-go. **Alex Tutor:** Good. The units drafted on 1 December, the checkpoint from the brief. If a unit is missing then, the review can't finish on 15 December, and everything behind it moves. **Danylo:** And "Design done" for the landing page? **Alex Tutor:** Ask what you'd decide there. Nothing waits for the design alone, so it's a task on your board, not a milestone for Leo. > **Exercise:** Which of these work as milestones, decision points for the physics launch? Select all that apply. **Leo:** And when a milestone comes back "no", who tells me? **Alex Tutor:** The project lead, the same day, in writing: the question, the answer, the prepared decision, and what it costs. No waiting for the weekly status. **Alex Tutor:** Check the reporting rule. > **Exercise:** **True or false:** when a milestone comes back “no”, the project lead reports it in the next weekly status, so the sponsor gets all the news in one place. **Danylo:** Let me check I've got the chain right for the tutors. **Alex Tutor:** Go from the first link to the last. Every link you skip is a date somebody will promise without knowing it. **Sofia:** Roman will want to know why his plan moved three weeks. **Alex Tutor:** Show him the chain. People accept a date they can trace back to its reasons. > **Exercise:** Put the chain behind tutor onboarding in order, from the first link to the last. **Sofia:** So I write each one down now: the question, the date and the plan B. **Vira:** Start with mine. The 1 December one scares me most. > **Exercise:** Write the **1 December milestone** (units drafted) as a decision point: the question, how you'll check it, and the decision prepared for "no". > **Key ideas** > > - A **dependency** is a link where one piece of work waits for another. Look for three kinds: logical (needs another's output), through people (the same person), and outside (a contractor, a sponsor's decision). > - The **hidden dependency** breaks plans quietly: tutor onboarding waits for demo lessons, which wait for the final curriculum, which waits for Vira's review on 15 December. > - A **milestone** has no duration. Use it as a decision point: a question with a date, and a decision prepared for "no". > - If nothing waits for it and nobody decides anything there, it's a task, not a milestone. **Alex Tutor:** Next: with all the links in place, which chain decides the end date, and how much room the others have. - Previous lesson: [Case: the deliverable list that doesn't fit](https://productovi.com/courses/project-management-without-bureaucracy/deliverable-list-case.md) - Next lesson: [The critical path and float](https://productovi.com/courses/project-management-without-bureaucracy/critical-path-and-float.md) --- Productovi Learning. Free, no sign-up needed to read.