dependency-mapping

Overview

Based on "Making Work Visible" by Dominica DeGrandis. Hidden dependencies are one of the five time thieves that kill delivery flow. The key insight: dependencies only become visible when you explicitly surface them as work items - not as footnotes in a ticket or assumptions in a plan. A dependency map exposes which teams are waiting on which, so you can sequence work and eliminate the invisible queue.

Workflow

Step 1: Gather the delivery inventory

Ask the user to list all active workstreams, epics, or initiatives currently in flight. For each item, capture:

• Name of the workstream
• Owning team
• Current status (not started / in progress / blocked / done)
• Target completion date

If the user provides a list, extract these fields. If they give a narrative, parse it into this structure before continuing.

Step 2: Identify the dependency type for each workstream

For each workstream, ask: "What does this need from outside the team before it can proceed?" Classify each dependency: