Policy : Minimise Dependency Drag

Commitment to Structural Speed Dependencies between teams are one of the most reliable sources of delay in software delivery organisations. When teams must wait for other teams' decisions, output, or approval before they can proceed, lead times increase, motivation drops, and accountability becomes diffuse. Leaders are in a unique position to see dependencies that teams cannot see from their own vantage point — and to act on them structurally, not just tactically.

What This Means Minimising dependency drag is not just about resolving the immediate blocker. It is about identifying and addressing the structural reasons that dependencies exist in the first place — the team designs, architecture decisions, shared services, and governance structures that create chronic waiting. Leaders must operate on both levels simultaneously.

Our commitment to minimising dependency drag is built on:

• Making Dependencies Visible – Leaders maintain awareness of what their teams are blocked by, waiting for, or dependent on — and ensure this information is visible at the right levels.
• Structural Over Symptomatic Solutions – When a dependency recurs, leaders look for the structural change that removes it permanently, not just the relationship fix that resolves the current instance.
• Advocating for Team Autonomy – Leaders champion investment in shared platforms, self-service tooling, and architectural decoupling that reduces inter-team dependencies over time.
• Rapid Escalation Paths – When teams are blocked by dependencies outside their control, leaders ensure there is a fast, effective path to escalation and resolution.
• Portfolio-Level WIP Management – Leaders limit the number of concurrent initiatives that cross team boundaries, reducing the coordination overhead that creates dependency chains.

Why This Matters DORA research identifies loosely coupled teams — teams that can release independently without coordinating with others — as a direct driver of software delivery performance. Dependency drag is the enemy of this independence. Leaders who reduce structural dependencies create the conditions for teams to deliver at full speed.

Our Expectation Leaders must actively surface and address dependencies — at the tactical level (unblocking teams today) and the structural level (changing the conditions that create dependencies). They must treat persistent dependencies as a design problem, not just a coordination challenge.

See Also

This policy is part of a cross-cutting concept. Read the full picture: → [[Dependency Management]]

Related policies in other domains:

• [[Minimise Dependencies]] — Product
• [[Make Work Visible and Limit WIP]] — Agile