Relationship
Scheduling Terms
Reviewed by forProject Technology - updated Sep 2026
Quick definition: A Relationship is the logical link between two schedule tasks that establishes the order in which they must occur, such as Finish-to-Start, Start-to-Start, Finish-to-Finish, or Start-to-Finish.
In scheduling, a Relationship defines how one task depends on another. The most common type, Finish-to-Start, means a task can't begin until its predecessor finishes, while Start-to-Start, Finish-to-Finish, and Start-to-Finish variants link tasks in other ways.
Why it matters
Relationships are what turn a list of tasks into an actual network schedule, letting early and late dates, float, and the Critical Path be calculated. Get a relationship wrong and the logic driving everything downstream in the schedule can be inaccurate.
Also known as
Logical Relationship; Dependency
Used in
Network Schedule; Critical Path Method (CPM) calculations
FAQ
What's the most common type of relationship?
Finish-to-Start (FS) is by far the most common, where a task can't start until its predecessor is complete.
Can two tasks have more than one relationship between them?
In most scheduling tools, no — each pair of tasks is typically linked by a single relationship type, though lag or lead time can be added to it.
Definition maintained by forProject Technology.
© 2026 forProject Technology, Inc.
© 2026 forProject Technology, Inc.
