Four types of task dependencies

Four types of task dependencies


"Nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small jobs."
                                                                                                                 - Henry Ford

Projects, small or large, are driven by simple work units called tasks. Monitoring standalone tasks might look simple but as the workflow becomes elaborate, tasks may start relying on one another. In project management, this relationship between tasks is termed as "Task Dependencies".


Dependency between tasks arise due to resource constraints and logical factors. They are further classified into four types, namely, 

  • Finish-To-Start (FS) : The successor can't begin until the predecessor finishes. 
  • Start-To-Start (SS)  : The successor can't begin until the predecessor begins. 
  • Finish-To-Finish (FF)  : The successor can't finish until the predecessor finishes.

  • Start-To-Finish (SF)  : The successor can't finish until the predecessor begins.

Let us understand better by applying the types of dependencies in a real-time business scenario. Consider an industrial task, like coffee processing. It begins with the harvest of coffee beans. Once harvested, the coffee beans must be dried.

 

Drying the coffee beans cannot start until harvest is completed - Finish-to-Start

 

Once the harvested beans start to dry, grading can be initiated - Start-To-Start 

Later the beans are roasted to develop the flavor before being packaged into a final product.

 

Coffee packets cannot be filled until the roasting is done - Finish-To-Finish

 

Final packing cannot be completed until the packets are sealed - Start-To-Finish


We support all the four types of dependencies now. You can discover the dependent avenues in your business, connect them together, analyze the type of task dependency, and view their progress using Gantt charts.   


Hope you find our new feature helpful! For more information on task dependencies, take a look at our help guide. Learn more about our latest updates. For any suggestions or queries, reach us at support@zohoprojects.com .

    • Sticky Posts

    • Tip: How to print the Gantt View

      Though we move from the traditional project management system (using papers) to an online project management system, we still prefer to have a printed copy of the activities/tasks that are to be done in the project. This way, we can carry the to-do lists with us for the meetings and refer when we are offline. The print option, available at the right side of the page, allows the users to print the project information across all the modules. However, this option failed to print all the tasks & milestones

    • Project Management via Emails in Zoho Projects

      We write mails to communicate. In Zoho Projects, we can write mails to collaborate. Yes, Zoho Projects supports Email based project management. The mails that you send turn into tasks, bugs, project comments, forum replies, etc. The following are some of the frequently asked questions that might be of some help to you. What are the pre-requisites to manage my projects through Emails? You need to have a personal / business mail ID that is registered and confirmed with accounts.zoho.com To learn more

    • Four types of task dependencies

      "Nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small jobs."                                                                                                                  - Henry Ford Projects, small or large, are driven by simple work units called tasks. Monitoring standalone tasks might look simple but as the workflow becomes elaborate, tasks may start relying on one another. In project management, this relationship between tasks is termed as "Task Dependencies". Dependency between tasks arise

    • Task and Project numbering

      Zoho Projects now generates a unique number for each project, task, and issue added. The auto-generated ID is a combination of a prefix and a number which is assigned by Zoho Projects. The unique IDs for projects, tasks, and issues will be useful to track, identify, and search easily. You can modify the settings to enable or disable the Project and Task IDs.  Learn more on how to modify Prefix & ID settings for projects and tasks. Issue IDs cannot be disabled, only its prefix can be changed (tasks

    • Task Inline Editing Enhancement

      Hi All, Today, we have made an enhancement in task inline editing. In 4.0, task edit is moved in a single screen in a pop-up. We designed this in-order to make the task edit across the product to be the same. Let it be in Feeds, Tasks & My Tasks tab, Calendar & My Calendar tab, a click on the task title will open the popup and user can edit the values. Customers pointed us the inline editing was very useful to them & how much they miss that in 4.0. Based on the feedback, we have rolled out this enhancement.

    • Recent Topics

    • Managing manual users

      Why are there two seemingly-identical lines in the manual user management? How can someone in the space be both Disabled and Admin? What is the difference between the two groups?

    • Sum Total of various fields in child module and add value to parent module field

      Hi! Having trouble with a custom function, im trying to calculate the total of all the rent and sqm fields of our offices in Products module and have them transfer to the parent module Location. The API names are as below: Child module Products = "Products"

    • Work Order Creation Issue

      Dear Team, I would like to inquire about the daily limit for Work Order creation in Zoho FSM. Yesterday (02/05/2025) at around 6:30 PM GST, I attempted to create a Work Order, but I have been unable to do so since then. Please find the attached image

    • The 3.1 biggest problems with Kiosk right now

      I can see a lot of promise in Kiosk, but it currently has limited functionality that makes it a bit of an ugly duckling. It's great at some things, but woeful at others, meaning people must rely on multiple tools within CRM for their business processes.

    • We need customizable sub-form layouts

      Currently, we can arrange sub-form fields only in a single row. The single row layout means salespeople must horizontally scroll to uncover information. As a result, salespeople cannot see all of the relevant information simultaneously.  The administrator

    • How can i connect the zoho people to n8n.io

      Hello, I hope you are doing well Iam working on an automation in which I will be fetching the data from Zoho People of my employees to arrange, modify, and upload on Google Sheets to maintain their attendance data. I tried through the Zoho Developer Console

    • Staff Tracking in

      Hi , I would like to see what activity my staff does over Zoho CRM and over Zoho Mail . I need to know which deals in CRM haven't been touched or had an activity on by a particular staff member . Basically need to establish what work.gets done by WFH

    • How do you make sure the same person doesn't answer the survey twice?

      Preventing multiple responses to a survey is really important because letting people answer more than once can seriously ruin the data. It skews results, making it seem like certain opinions are more popular than they are. This can lead to misleading

    • In line code commenting in Deluge

      A request to enhance readability: currently you can add 'in line' comments for Deluge code, but after you save and reopen, the comments are moved down to the new line. i.e. info "test response"; //this is a info statement for a test response gets changed

    • GCLID arrives not in CRM with iframe integrated ZOHO Form

      Hello amazing community, I enabled Adwords integration in ZOHO CRM. I have a ZOHO Form integrated in a wordpress. I tested iframe and Javascript. I enabled the "handover" GCLID in the ZOHO Form. When I add a GLID with http://www.example.com/?gclid=TeSter-123.

    • Sending Recruit SMS's to Zoho Cliq - Or tracking in the Messages module in Recruit?

      Is there any way to send SMS Gateway messages in Recruit to ZOho Cliq? We use 2-way SMS massages a lot in Zoho Recruit to speed up communication with Candidates. However the only way to keep track of received SMS's is by keeping a look out for the Email

    • Feature Request - Insert URL Links in Folders

      I would love to see the ability to create simple URL links with titles in WorkDrive. or perhaps a WorkDrive extension to allow it. Example use case: A team is working on a project and there is project folder in WordDrive. The team uses LucidChart to create

    • Allowing workflows to execute as an admin

      Workflows currently seem to execute with the permissions of the logged in user. This is a problem for most of the forms we have where we have hidden fields that perform business logic. If we restrict the permissions of these fields so users can't view

    • How to validate Rich Text in Zoho Creator! Urgent!

      Hi members, Recently I just started to use Rich Text field. Now I have a requirement where I need to validate to ensure this Rich Text field must contain a value. Meaning must contain something. I use the below script if(input.Rich_Text == null) { alert

    • Custom Function to Format Phone / Mobile numbers in Australian Standard format

      So I got sick of phone numbers being formatted incorrectly and Zoho not doing anything to standardise phone numbers to meet E.164 formats. So I went and coded my own function to fix this. And figured I'd share with the community This is specifically for

    • Add Lookup Field in Tasks Module

      Hello, I have a need to add a Lookup field in addition to the ones that are already there in the Tasks module. I've seen this thread and so understand that the reason lookup fields may not be part of it is that there are already links to the tables (https://help.zoho.com/portal/en/community/topic/custom-fields-on-task-module).

    • Group Emails

      I have synced Zoho CRM to Campaigns but there are certain email not synced. showing it is Group Emails, but this email ids belongs to different individuals. please provide a solution as i nedd to sync the same.

    • How to modify query from a DataBridge Connection

      Hello, I just installed the new DataBridge tool to import data to our Zoho Analytycs account from our local database. It works well so far, and data gets sync every day. The only issue that I found is that we do not know how to modify the query that imports

    • Is there a way to force a page refresh after changing a Subform via Workflow / Function?

      I have a workflow which triggers a function, and in this function i am changing the values of a certain subform. The changed are only visibile when i manually refresh the page and this is a no-no for my use-case. When other workflows, that change certain

    • Unable to invite contacts

      Hi! I'm unable to invite contacts as end-users from my trial account. The green pop-up displays "Invited succesfully" but the email never arrives, nor the re-invitation - even though it's "sucessfully" as well. Tried with several e-mail accounts, even

    • Enable Full Theme Editor for Help Center (Disable Express Builder)

      Dear Zoho Support, We are currently using the Elegant theme in Zoho Desk Help Center, but we only have access to the limited Express Builder. We would like to switch to the full Theme Editor to be able to: Access Language Strings Edit all pages (HTML/CSS/JS)

    • Introducing Assemblies and Kits in Zoho Inventory

      Hello customers, We’re excited to share a major revamp to Zoho Inventory that brings both clarity and flexibility to your inventory management experience! Presenting Assemblies and Kits We’re thrilled to introduce Assemblies and Kits, which replaces the

    • Zoho Desk - account and contact lookup by phone

      Hi team, Does Zoho Desk allow to lookup Accounts and Contacts by phone or not? I am using this endpoint- GET https://desk.zoho.eu/api/v1/accounts/search?phone=987-654-3210 But I am getting this error- { "errorCode": "UNPROCESSABLE_ENTITY", "message":

    • Add picklist in subform lookup

      Hello, I am trying to rewrite a script that works on a from as parent form, to the same form when is is a subform. Here is what I did in the form itself : RefCat = Offre_de_produits.distinct(Categorie_OFFRE); clear Categorie_LIGNE; for each Record in

    • Way to export / import a Flow between different accounts?

      Hi, I developped some flows in my account and see that for some other organisation I'm working with, they would need the same or similar flows. Is there a way for me to export one flow from one account and import it to another ? This would be handy, as

    • Setting admin only field values in widget

      Hello If I'm using a Widget addRecord function invoked by a user input (the user has write permission not developer) can he set values to a field that is set to be visible to Admin only?

    • Exclude Segment from Campaign Recipients

      I've created two Segments in order to separate Non-Marketing Contacts from Marketing Contacts. I'd like to send an Eblast to all Marketing contacts in my lists, but when I go to select Recipients, I have two options: 1. To Choose Lists to Send to; 2.

    • Option to Delete Chats in IM

      Currently, there is no option to delete any chats in IM, regardless of their source.

    • Installing EMAIL Setup in New Domain

      Respected Support team, I'm facing an issue with cloudflare in Pakistan, I want to setup Zoho Mail Setup but I Don't know how to enable Zoho mail setup without cloudflare. My Website https://stumbleguymod.com/ is using CF, and I want a different Zoho

    • Stop completed task lists from disappearing?

      Is there any way to stop projects from making tasks lists disappear when all the tasks in the list are completed? That's one of those little things where we're constantly fighting the product. For instance we have some projects which are ongoing - no start and end date. We use Kanban view to show the various task lists. We don't want the kanban list to disappear every time the items on it happen to be closed out. Thanks

    • Adding Coloured Picklist Based On Email Body Text

      Hey All, So i am having this problem, Im currently trying to automate a coloured picklist so that when the body of an email contains a specific word it will assign one of my coloured picklist i have created automatically, But it appears this only works

    • Compliant SQL?

      I am a Microsoft Access developer. At the moment I am downloading tables from Zoho into an Access database to create join queries that I am unable to do in Zoho. I am doing this because Zoho doesn't seem to fully support all SQL statements that Access

    • Automation #11 - Auto Update Custom Fields with Values from Emails

      This is a monthly series designed to help you get the best out of Desk. We take our cue from what's being discussed or asked about the most in our community. Then we find the right use cases that specifically highlight solutions, ideas and tips to optimize

    • Email notification for followers

      Is there a way to enable email notification for followers of a support ticket? ie: Ticket #123 is owned by Agent#1, Agent#2 adds themselves as a follower. Whenever ticket #123 receives an email from the customer, Agent#1 receives an email. Agent#2 would

    • Unified WhatsApp Number Management in Zoho Desk and SalesIQ

      Dear Zoho Desk Support Team, We are currently utilizing both Zoho Desk and Zoho SalesIQ for our customer support operations. While both platforms offer WhatsApp integration, we are facing challenges due to the requirement of separate WhatsApp numbers

    • Zoho Desk is extremely slow

      Hi Team, We are facing extreme latency issue with Zoho Desk. It is currently unusable. I have submitted a ticket already could you please look into this asap. Regards, Priya Sharna

    • Zoho Desk is extremeley Slow

      Hi, Zoho Desk seems to be extremely slow for the last 15 mins for everyone in our team (5 people). https://status.zohocloud.ca/ didn't show any status in this regard. Would it be possible to have an idea what is happening and when this should be resolved?

    • Help Centre - Widget or Tab for Customer Downloads

      USE CASE: We are a software vendor, using Zoho Desk (as part of a Zoho One subscription) to help mange support issues from our customer base. Customers can log tickets via email or Help Centre portal. QUESTION: I need to provide the capability for our

    • Integración Books para cumplir la ley Crea y Crece y Ley Antifraude (VeriFactu)

      Hola: En principio, en julio de 2025, entra en vigor la ley Crea y Crece y Ley Antifraude (VeriFactu). ¿Sabéis si Zoho va a cumplir con la ley para cumplir con la facturación electrónica conectada a Hacienda? Gracias

    • How to let only account-bound products visible to users

      Hello friends, I'm trying to leave only the Products linked to the accounts visible to Zoho Portal users. If the user clicks "All Products," they can open tickets incorrectly for products that do not belong to the account that are registered. Is it possible

    • Next Page