---
name: manage-a-cross-functional-dependency
category: start
description: Manage a cross-functional dependency through a shared contract, owners, dates, inputs, acceptance, risk, escalation, and change evidence. Use when one team's outcome relies on another team's work or decision.
---

# manage-a-cross-functional-dependency

Treat the dependency as a two-sided commitment, not a reminder.

## When to use

- Use across product, engineering, finance, legal, security, operations, vendors, or leadership.
- Do not assign dates or owners without confirmation from the delivering side.

## Procedure

1. State consuming outcome, delivering outcome, business need, latest useful date, and consequence of failure.
2. Identify accountable owners, contributors, approvers, recipients, and decision authority on both sides.
3. Define inputs, interface, scope, quality, acceptance evidence, assumptions, exclusions, and change process.
4. Map predecessor and successor dependencies, lead times, environments, and capacity.
5. Agree checkpoints, forecast cadence, risk triggers, escalation dates, and contingency options.
6. Track actual evidence and changes rather than percentage complete.
7. Accept delivery explicitly, verify downstream integration, and close or transition remaining obligations.

## Done

- A dependency record and status report document outcomes, owners, interface, dates, criteria, evidence, risks, escalation, contingency, and status
- Two-sided confirmation, scope, schedule, acceptance, integration, escalation, and closure checks verify the commitment