Critical Dependency¶
A critical dependency is an external outcome that must occur to prevent the project schedule from being impeded or blocked. This is often a predecessor to a future goal or coordination of an external interface update. Managing critical dependencies is about risk mitigation.
For example, the project may depend on a specific external interface that has a planned upgrade which causes the current version to become immediatly obsolete. In this worst-case scenario the project must plan to support the new version by a specific date or within a specific date range. Ideally external interfaces use a deprecation strategy which can make this kind of critical dependency much easier to manage.