What it is
A dependency is a typed link between two tasks — blocking, parent-child, or related. Everview computes a health status for blocking dependencies based on how much schedule slack exists between the two tasks: Violated, Tight, Constrained, or Safe, from most to least at-risk.
How to read it
Safe means there's comfortable slack between the blocking task and the one waiting on it. Constrained and Tight mean the slack is shrinking — the dependent task's schedule has little room left to absorb delay. Violated means the blocking task is already scheduled to finish after the dependent task needs it, an active scheduling conflict. Dependency lines on the canvas connect the tasks' ports directly, so you can trace a chain visually.
Hovering a link that sits on a project's critical path shows two lines. The first is the path's slack — "3 days overdue" or "12 days slack" — which is the same for every link on that path. The second places this link on it:
- "60% left" — how much of the chain's remaining work still sits ahead of this link, once its source task is done. A high figure late in a project means most of the risk is still in front of you.
- "18% behind" — how far the path has slipped, as a share of its own length. It only appears when the path is actually late; a healthy link shows the first figure alone.
The day count here is measured against the sprints the work is assigned to. A task card's deadline circle can show a different number because it is measured against the velocity projection instead — see Task Status Circles for why the two differ.
What to do about it
Treat Violated dependencies as immediate scheduling problems, not something to note for later. Constrained and Tight dependencies are worth checking before they become Violated, especially on tasks that sit on the critical path — the chain of dependent tasks with the least slack across a project. The same schedule math also surfaces directly on task cards as status circles, including a red hexagon reading "Violated Dependency" on the task the violated link is holding up — a hexagon rather than a circle because it is a wiring problem, not a schedule measurement. A cluster of Tight or Constrained dependencies in one area is worth raising in Spotting Delivery Bottlenecks with Operation View.