When you plan a project, it's very common that you won't be able to start a task until a preceeding task is completed.

This is called a "dependency" since your second task is dependent on a first's completion.

JCV Gantt supports several different sorts of dependencies, dependent (no pun intended) on the way in which a preceeding task needs to trigger the next task.

see Finish-to-Start, Start-to-Start, and Finish-to-Finish

Adding Dependencies

Hold down the Control key, and click any tasks which are dependent on each other

for completion.

Click the Chain Link Icon to create a dependency chain for all of these tasks.

Removing Dependencies

If you ever need to remove a dependency, select any two or more items and click the Unchain Link Icon to remove them

Sometimes more than one tasks needs to be completed before a "new task" begins.

In this case, open up the "new task" Properties Display

Switch to the Predecessors Tab (another word for dependencies).

Double-click on the 1st item in the spreadsheet  in the Name column and you'll see a combo box appear

From that list select the preceeding tasks, then you may double- click on following spreadsheet rows to add more preceeding tasks.

Note that the column to the right of the Name column, is called the Dependency Type... and JCV Gantt supports several different types of dependencies displays.

Type: Finish to Start

The most typical relationship between activities is called a "Finish- to-Start" dependency.

In English, this means...you can't start the 2nd activity before the 1st one is finished.

This shows an arrow from the end of the first activity pointing to the Start Time of the second activity

One important Note

If your Duration setting is greater than the distance in time between your Start Time and End Time...the dependency displays a line called a "Float line" (also called a "Lag time" or "Lead time" line).

This is a useful way to budget some extra time into an activity just in case things don't quite go as "planned".

Of course you can always "stretch" the End Time by dragging the right side of the bar.

Start-To-Start relationships occur when two tasks must start at the same time.

Important Note: You must match the Start times for both tasks to display this properly.

Start-To-Start is just that, it means that two or more tasks are startingsimultaneously.

People often think that Start-to-Start is a useless notation, but there are many times in process control where two tasks MUST start at the same time in order for a process to work.

Finish-to-Finish relationships occur when two tasks must end at the same time.

Important Note: You must match the End times for both tasks to display this properly.

Finish-to-Finish means that two or more tasks are ending simultaneously.

There are two basic techniques for removing dependencies...

Select a task that depends on another task. In the Properties Dialog, go to the Predecessors Tab, and select the combobox that displays the dependency you wish to remove. Select the "BLANK" entry at the top of the combobox and the dependency will be removed

...or...

Select one or more tasks (using multi-select) with dependencies and click the UNCHAIN Icon