Should dependencies be elevated to executive-level visibility?

Lissette Indhira Pimentel Sosa

Community Champion

Program Manager| HARPER SRL Santo Domingo / Distrito Nacional, Dominican Republic

Dependencies often drive delays more than internal performance, yet they are not always visible in strategic discussions. Elevating them could improve prioritization.

Posted: Jun 30, 2026 10:04 PM

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Luis Branco CEO| Business Insight, Consultores de Gestão, Ldª Carcavelos, Lisboa, Portugal

This raises an important question.

In my experience, the issue is not whether dependencies are visible to executives, but whether they become visible at the point where executive decisions can actually make a difference.

Many dependencies are coordination issues and should remain within the team or programme.
Others become strategic because they involve competing priorities, shared resources or decisions that no single project can resolve.

Perhaps dependencies should be elevated not because they exist, but because they represent decision points that affect organisational value.
Visibility alone doesn't remove bottlenecks.
Timely decisions do.

Posted: Jul 1, 2026 4:50 AM

Aaron Porter

Community Champion

IT Director| Blade HQ Payson, UT, United States

What level are you talking about - [portfolio||program||project||task]?

To Luis' point, impact is a strong factor in determining who needs to be explicitly aware of dependencies. Level and distance from the dependency are, as well. My CTO isn't concerned about a task-level dependency that could delay the task without impacting the overall project schedule, but he is going to pay attention to whether Project A needs to be started, hit a specific milestone, or be completed before Project B when prioritizing approved projects in the portfolio.

Once you move past the politics and WIIFMs, prioritization is relatively straightforward. Understanding the relevant dependencies will make a difference. Examples of relevant dependencies might be when a dependency crosses organizational boundaries, affects multiple projects or strategic objectives, or requires a change in priorities, funding, or resource allocation. This might be an oversimplification, but I think of it as whether it's information that will help with effective decision-making or if it's just noise.

Posted: Jul 1, 2026 10:13 AM

Chia Fang Chang

Community Champion

PM Consultant| CLOUD SAFE CO., LTD. New Taipei City, NWT, Taiwan

Agree that critical dependencies definitely deserve more strategic attention and shouldn't be swept under the rug.

However, whether elevating them straight to the executive level actually helps is highly situational. In a supportive culture, it unblocks resources; in a micromanaged environment, it might just lead to a culture of blame without fixing the root cause. The approach really needs to be tailored to the organization's dynamics and maturity.

Posted: Jul 1, 2026 11:27 AM

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Should dependencies be elevated to executive-level visibility?

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