General Terminology

Types of Items

Item

All entries are considered Items in a project.

Work

Any item without children is considered WORK. This means it will show up on the Kanban and its STATUS will be updated. Often, a work item will have CHILDREN assigned to it. When this happens, it is no longer considered work.

Milestone

Any item with a duration of 0 days is a MILESTONE. Milestones don't take up time on the calendar and are considered DONE when all previous tasks are DONE. The path and slack time to any milestone can be calculated on the GANTT page.

Relationships

Parent

In agile methodology, an Epic is the parent of several Story or Task Items. In a table, the parent appears above its children. A parent is divided into parts by its children and is complete when all children are complete.

Child

Any item under the current item. These items come together to form the complete feature or work set of the parent.

Predecessor

Any item that must be finished before the current item.

Successor

Any item that can't start until the current item is finished.

Dependency Behaviors

Dependencies are thought of as the Predecessor drives or triggers the successor to occur. When thinking about these, remember that language because it isn’t always before and after but instead what triggers the successor dependency

FS Dependency

This is your basic dependency where the first task must be finished before the next one can start.

FF Dependency

This is a dependency where the first task must finish before the next one can finish. These often use a LAG to show how much later it can finish.

Example: In construction the drywall cannot complete until the framing is completed

SS Dependency

This is a dependecy where the predecessor must start before the successor can start. These typically utilize a LAG to show how much later it can finish.

Example: In construction the painters will not start until 3 days after the framers start

SF Dependency

This dependency is where the predecessor must start before the successor can finish. This is a rarely used dependency type which can often be f

Lag

A delay added to a dependency to adjust the start / finish dates of the successors. A positive lag means adding time between the completion of the predecessor and the successor event.

A positive 3 day lag on a Finish → Start task would be represented by (FS+3d) and would mean the successor starts 3 days after the predecessor finishes.

A negative 3 day lag on a Finish → Start task would be represented by (FS-3d) would mean the successor can begin 3 days BEFORE the predecssor ends

Item Specific Terms

Owner

This is the person the work item is assigned to and whose Kanban it will show up on

Desired Start

This is the earliest an item can begin.

Example: A new chip has a release date of 1/1/26. You intend to integrate this into your product and have the work mapped out. The integration process cannot begin until you have the chip in hand even if all preparatory work is done ahead of time. The integration task has a desired start date of 1/1/26

Desired Duration

This is how long you expect an item to take to accomplish.

Calendar Start

This is the start date which appears on the gantt chart. It is determined by the earliest date an item can start based on the completion of the predecessors, the desired start date, and when you move a task to the ongoing status.

Calendar End

This is the end date which appears on the gantt chart. It is equal to the start date PLUS the duration, unless the task is marked DONE, in which case the date it is marked DONE is the Calendar End.

Statuses

Blocked

A predecessor is not complete preventing the item from being available to work on

To Do

An item is available to begin working on

Ongoing

An item is being worked on currently. Its Calendar Start date is now the date it entered this status

DONE

An item is completed. Its calendar end date is now the date it entered this status

Critical Path Terms

Critical Path

This is the series of items which must be completed and have no SLACK to arrive at a given milestone. If a child is on critical path, the parent is as well.

Slack

This is the number of days a task can be delayed in completion before it is on the critical path. When you prioritize by slack, you are always working on the highest priority work.

Examples

The Manhattan Project R&D Team

Let us pretend we’re managing the R&D team for the Manhattan Project. Here are some examples of how each of these dependencies could be used. There are often other ways to connect the specified tasks and most people prefer to use just FS relationships as they make the most intuitive sense, however, sometimes the more complex dependencies are needed.

FS

You cannot begin your experimental validation until you complete the theoretical calculations. This is a Finish → Start (FS) relationship

You cannot begin final reactor design until you have a review of the prototype experiments and cannot have this review until the experiments are complete and reports written. The FINISH of the experiments drives the START of the review and the FINISH of the review drives the START of the final design.

SS

You cannot begin the background & security clearance process until you begin selecting your researchers. Once you START to select them, you may immediately START their individual background checks. This is a Start → Start (SS) Relationship

FF

Your research team is running simulations based on experiments. The experiments will continue until a satisfactory result is reached and the simulations will complete the day after the experiments. The FINISH of the experiments determines the FINISH of the simulations. This is a FINISH → Finish (FF) Relationship

SF

This is a weird one and VERY rarely used. Let's say your centrifuge takes 3 days to reach stable speed to insert your plutonium for enrichment and you need it to not run for an extended period empty. The START of the Plutonium Enrichment task Determines FINISH of the Centrifuge Start Up task. This is a Start → Finish (SF) relationship. You could also represent this as a (FF) relationship to the Plutonium Inventory Stockpile task, however, if you don’t know the delay between completing the Stockpile and starting the Enrichment, you could be running the centrifuge unnecessarily.

Lag

If it takes 2 days to run the simulations after each experiment concludes in the FF example, there will be a lag of (+2 days) after the experiments complete before the simulations complete. This would be represented as FF+2d.

Your experimental prototype work likely has official reports to close out this task however, we’re in a hurry and we can review the findings and results without the official reports being complete and these final reports take a week to write. Therefore you can hold the review BEFORE the prototype experiments completely finish. This would be represented by a negative lag of 1w. This looks like FS-5d or FS-1w.

You’re building a house

Now lets talk about the process of building a house for a more concrete example (pun intended).

FS

You cannot begin installing the framing of the house until the concrete has been poured. The FINISH of pouring the concrete drives the START of framing. This is a FS relationship

The cabinetry is going to be installed after the painting is complete. The FINISH of the painting drives the START of the cabinetry. This is a FS relationship

SS

The Mechanical & Electrical drawings cannot be submitted and reviewed until the Architectural drawings begin their review as well. These items will occur at the same time but the START of the Architectural review drives the START of the MEP review. This is an SS relationship

FF

The drywaller works much faster than the framer and intends to finish just as the framer finishes. The FINISH of the framing drives the FINISH of the drywall.

SF

If you’re building in a cold environment you may need temporary heating in the house to work until the HVAC system is started up. The START of the HVAC determines the FINISH of the temporary heating

Lag

Lets be honest, that dry wall guy is not THAT fast. He’s not going to finish until the day after the framer. He’s going to have a lag of +1 days (FF+1d)

The painter doesn’t have to completely finish before the cabinetry can begin install. In fact, the cabinetry can start 3 days before the painter finishes since the rooms will be empty and dry. This would be a negative lag of -3 days or (FS-3d)

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Glossary