glossary — plain english
Finish-to-start
A dependency where task B cannot start until task A finishes. It is the most common relationship between scheduled tasks.
"Build starts after design is finished" is a finish-to-start relationship. On a Gantt chart, it appears as an arrow from the end of the design bar to the start of the build bar.
There are three other dependency types. Start-to-start means B can start once A starts. Finish-to-finish means B cannot finish until A finishes. The less common start-to-finish relationship means B cannot finish until A starts; a shift handover is one example.
Finish-to-start links cover many small project plans. You can add lead time when the second task can begin before the first is fully finished. Choose the relationship that matches the actual constraint.
See it on a real chart
Describe your project in plain English and ganttchart.ai turns it into a Gantt chart you can edit and share. Or read the method first: the plain-English planning guide.