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Lead

Lead

Scheduling Terms Reviewed by forProject Technology - updated Sep 2026
Quick definition: A Lead is a planned overlap built into a logical relationship, allowing the successor task to start before the predecessor condition is fully met.

Lead is the mirror image of Lag: instead of delaying the Successor, it is used to introduce an "overlap" between tasks. It's entered as a negative amount of time on the relationship, which is why it's often called negative Lag. Leads call for more caution than Lags, and are prohibited altogether by certain schedule health checks, including the Defense Contract Management Agency (DCMA) 14-Point Assessment.

What this means for you

A Lead makes a schedule finish sooner without changing any of the underlying work, which is precisely why it attracts scrutiny. Used honestly it captures genuine overlap; used carelessly it manufactures schedule that isn't there. If the overlap is real, it can usually be modeled by splitting the predecessor into the part the successor actually waits for and the part it doesn't.

Also known as
Negative Lag
Used in
Schedule network modeling; Critical Path Method calculations; schedule health assessment

FAQ

Why are Leads discouraged?
Because overlapping tasks by assertion is easy to get wrong, and the compression is hard to see. The better approach is to break the predecessor into smaller tasks, so the real dependency is visible in the logic. The government also applies strict tolerances to Lead use.
Is a Lead the same as negative Lag?
Yes. A Lead is entered as a negative time value on the relationship, and the two names are used interchangeably. The distinction worth keeping is one of intent: Lag models a wait, Lead models an overlap.
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