Dependency Mapping

VerifiedSafe

Map and visualize dependencies between features and work items. Identify blockers, critical paths, and risks to optimize project planning and sequencing.

Sby Skills Guide Bot
DevelopmentIntermediate
206/2/2026
Claude Code
#dependency-graph#blockers#critical-path#feature-planning

Recommended for

Our review

Creates a visual map of dependencies between features or work items, identifying blockers and critical path.

Strengths

  • Clear visualization of task relationships
  • Quick identification of blockers and circular dependencies
  • Generates structured and actionable reports
  • Integrates with existing PBI files

Limitations

  • Requires dependencies to be explicitly documented in PBIs
  • Does not handle undocumented implicit dependencies
  • Works best with a specific file format
When to use it

When planning feature sequences or analyzing the impact of a blocker across the project.

When not to use it

For very small projects or those without explicit dependencies, where a simple list suffices.

Security analysis

Safe
Quality score90/100

Skill only uses safe tools (Read, Write, Edit, Grep, Glob, TodoWrite) for reading and writing files/dependency graphs. No destructive or network commands, no code execution beyond file operations. Activation of 'project-manager' skill is a helper, no risk.

No concerns found

Examples

Map dependencies for a single PBI
/dependency team-artifacts/pbis/260119-pbi-dark-mode-toggle.md
Map all dependencies across all PBIs
/dependency all
Identify blockers for a feature
Map dependencies and identify blockers for the user authentication feature.

name: dependency description: Map and visualize feature dependencies. Use when analyzing dependencies, identifying blockers, or creating dependency graphs. Triggers on keywords like "dependencies", "blockers", "what blocks", "dependency map". infer: true allowed-tools: Read, Write, Edit, Grep, Glob, TodoWrite

Dependency Mapping

Map and visualize dependencies between features and work items.

When to Use

  • Planning feature sequencing
  • Identifying blockers
  • Understanding critical path

Pre-Workflow

Activate Skills

  • Activate project-manager skill for dependency analysis best practices

Quick Reference

Workflow

  1. Read target PBI/feature or all items from team-artifacts/pbis/
  2. Extract dependency fields
  3. Build dependency graph
  4. Identify risks (circular dependencies, unresolved blockers, external dependencies)
  5. Identify critical path
  6. Generate visualization report
  7. Output to console or save to file

Dependency Types

| Type | Symbol | Description | | ---------- | ------ | ----------------------------------- | | Blocked by | -> | Cannot start until X completes | | Blocks | <- | X cannot start until this completes | | Mutual | <-> | Bidirectional dependency | | Related to | => | Shares code/design elements | | Depends on | ~> | Needs external (API, service) |

Graph Notation

Feature A -> Feature B (blocked by)
Feature A <- Feature C (blocks)
Feature A <-> Feature D (mutual)

Visualization Template

## Dependency Map

### {Feature}

**Upstream (We depend on):**
- [ ] {Dep 1} - {status}
- [ ] {Dep 2} - {status}

**Downstream (Depends on us):**
- [ ] {Dep 1} - {their deadline}

### Critical Path
{A} -> {B} -> {C} -> {D}

### Risk Areas
- Red: {Feature X} blocking 3 items
- Yellow: {External API} - timeline uncertain

Output Format

A -> B -> C (critical path)
     \-> D

Legend:
-> blocks
=> related

Related

  • Role Skill: project-manager
  • Command: /dependency

Example

/dependency team-artifacts/pbis/260119-pbi-dark-mode-toggle.md
/dependency all

IMPORTANT Task Planning Notes

  • Always plan and break many small todo tasks
  • Always add a final review todo task to review the works done at the end to find any fix or enhancement needed
Related skills