Cross-Team Dependency Map

Overview

Dependency tracking for multi-team initiatives: who is blocking whom, what is on the critical path, what is at risk, and what to coordinate this week. The output is a Mermaid dependency diagram, a critical-path list, a risk-ordered blocker list, and a weekly cross-team sync agenda -- all generated from a single JSON file you maintain instead of a sprawling spreadsheet.

Most cross-team programs fail at dependency management, not execution. The teams individually do good work; the gaps are at the seams. This skill makes those seams visible, prioritizes them by criticality, and produces the communication artifacts that keep them visible week over week. The underlying model uses the Critical Path Method (CPM, Kelley and Walker, 1959) for sequencing, optional DSM (Design Structure Matrix) thinking for cluster identification, and Conway's Law (Conway, 1968) framing for the organizational source of recurring dependency patterns. All outputs follow the six standard PM formats per SHARED_OUTPUT_SCHEMA.md.

Core Capabilities

• Dependency capture — a six-field model (from/to team, description, needed-by, expected-delivery, status) maintained as one JSON file.
• Critical-path analysis — CPM computation of the longest zero-slack chain plus near-critical siblings.
• Risk ordering — slack and status combine into a risk-ranked blocker list.
• Visualization & comms — Mermaid graph LR rendering plus a weekly cross-team sync agenda.
• Org diagnosis — Conway's Law framing for recurring team-pair dependencies.

When to Use