This standard requires leaders to actively identify and remove the cross-team dependencies, approval chains, and structural friction that slow delivery — particularly the ones that teams cannot resolve themselves. Dependency drag is often invisible to those experiencing it; leaders with cross-functional visibility are uniquely positioned to address it.
It supports the policy "Minimise Dependency Drag" by making friction removal a proactive and ongoing leadership responsibility, not a reactive incident response.
| Category | Description |
|---|---|
| People & Culture | - Cross-team dependencies managed informally and reactively. - Leaders unaware of where dependency drag is accumulating. |
| Process & Governance | - No structured visibility of cross-team dependencies or blockers. - Escalation paths for structural blockers unclear or unused. |
| Technology & Tools | - No shared tooling for tracking cross-team dependencies or flow impediments. - Blockers tracked only at team level. |
| Measurement & Metrics | - No measurement of dependency-related delay. - Drag identified only when delivery timelines slip. |
| Category | Description |
|---|---|
| People & Culture | - Some leaders track cross-team blockers in planning forums. - Dependencies managed at portfolio or programme level in some areas. |
| Process & Governance | - Some dependency mapping in delivery processes. - Blockers escalated but resolved slowly. |
| Technology & Tools | - Basic dependency trackers or boards used in some delivery contexts. - Flow impediments visible at team level but not aggregated for leadership. |
| Measurement & Metrics | - Wait time and blocked time tracked in some teams. - Dependency resolution tracked informally. |
| Category | Description |
|---|---|
| People & Culture | - Leaders actively seek out and resolve cross-team blockers as a leadership responsibility. - Teams trust that blockers they surface will be acted on. |
| Process & Governance | - Cross-team dependency reviews embedded in leadership cadences. - Escalation paths for structural blockers clear, fast, and used. |
| Technology & Tools | - Shared tooling provides leaders with cross-team flow visibility. - Impediment backlogs maintained and reviewed at leadership level. |
| Measurement & Metrics | - Wait time, blocked time, and dependency-related delay tracked and reported. - Dependency resolution time tracked per leader and cross-team pairing. |
| Category | Description |
|---|---|
| People & Culture | - Dependency drag reduction a standing element of leadership effectiveness conversations. - Leaders proactively identify structural friction before teams report it. |
| Process & Governance | - Dependency patterns analysed to identify systemic structural design issues. - Organisational design reviews include dependency load as a key input. |
| Technology & Tools | - Flow analytics surface cross-team bottlenecks in real time. - Predictive signals flag emerging dependency risks before they slow delivery. |
| Measurement & Metrics | - Dependency-related wait time tracked as an organisational flow metric. - Correlation between dependency load and delivery velocity visible. |
| Category | Description |
|---|---|
| People & Culture | - Reducing dependency drag is an ingrained leadership priority, not a reactive task. - Leaders design structures and agreements that minimise dependencies from the outset. |
| Process & Governance | - Organisational structure continuously adapted to reduce dependency load. - Cross-team flow treated as a strategic performance dimension. |
| Technology & Tools | - Real-time flow intelligence continuously informs structural design decisions. - Dependency reduction embedded in how platforms and services are designed. |
| Measurement & Metrics | - Dependency drag tracked as an organisational agility metric at leadership level. - Flow efficiency a primary input to leadership and architecture strategy. |