Lead and Lag in Project Scheduling: Definitions and Examples

Quick answer

Lead overlaps a successor (start it early); lag inserts a wait between tasks (let the concrete cure) — the two dependencies’ adjustments.

Lag

Required wait — ‘pour concrete, wait 5 days, build’ — a dependency that must have time.

Lead

Overlap allowance — ‘start testing 2 weeks before dev ends’ — a successor pulled forward.

In the schedule

FS+5d (lag) or FS-2w (lead) — the dependency types plus their offsets.

Using them

Lags for real waits, leads for real overlaps — they’re modeling tools, not compression magic.

Bottom line

Lead overlaps a successor (start it early); lag inserts a wait between tasks (let the concrete cure) — the two dependencies’ adjustments.

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