What it is: There is a single task or milestone in the project plan that has many direct successors. In other words, there is one task or milestone that must be completed before many other tasks may begin.
Why it matters: The delay of this task or milestone will have a large ripple effect and impact the many dependent tasks that rely on it. In the example above, if the Identify Project Team task is delayed by one week it means that the Project Goal Statement, Financial/Strategic/Operational Impact, Develop Project Timeline, Develop Problem Statement, Define Key Terms, and Monitoring and Controlling Phase Review tasks will be unable to begin for a week.
What's next: Consider breaking the upstream task that is creating the constraint into multiple tasks to reduce risk. If the dependency chain cannot be modified, closely monitor and track status of the bottleneck task, as its impact in the overall project plan is outsized. This can be done by monitoring the percent complete for the task or by checking in with the task owner.
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