Review a Risky Project Dependency
Design a project review that exposes how one delayed dependency affects milestones, owners, and credible mitigation choices.
The brief
Understand the problem
Background
Project plans often show dependency arrows but fail to explain impact when an upstream date becomes uncertain. Teams then debate dates without a shared view of assumptions or the tradeoffs behind a mitigation.
User context
Aisha manages a checkout redesign. A security review owned by another team may slip by two weeks, which affects testing, launch communications, and a partner commitment.
Product problem
A project lead needs to assess uncertainty, map downstream consequences, and gain agreement on a mitigation without rewriting the entire project plan.
Objective
Create a dependency-risk review for one threatened milestone and its immediate downstream work.
What to design
Define the experience
Required experience
- Inspect the dependency, confidence, owner, and evidence
- Trace affected milestones and commitments
- Compare mitigation scenarios and their tradeoffs
- Record a decision with owners and review conditions
Screens and states
- Dependency risk detail
- Impact map
- Mitigation comparison
- Decision record
Core user flow
Follow the critical path
- 01
Aisha opens the security review dependency after its confidence changes to low
- 02
She traces the two-week slip to testing and partner launch commitments
- 03
She compares reducing launch scope, adding review capacity, and moving the date
- 04
Stakeholders choose a reduced first release with explicit acceptance criteria
- 05
The plan records owners, changed dates, and a review trigger if security slips again
Product rules
Requirements and constraints
Requirements
- Separate confirmed dates from estimates and assumptions
- Show direct and downstream impact without turning the screen into a full project graph
- Compare schedule, scope, cost, and risk for each mitigation
- Capture who approved the plan and which commitments changed
- Notify affected owners only after the decision is published
Constraints
- The dependency owner belongs to another team and controls its estimate
- Historical plan dates must remain available for audit
- The product cannot claim certainty from a single confidence label
Reality check
States worth considering
Finish line
What to deliver
- Four desktop screens that move one dependency risk from discovery to an approved mitigation
Optional direction
Visual resources
Use these as a starting constraint if you want one. They are not part of the required solution.