Project : Lag and Lead Time

Project : Lag and Lead Time

In MS Project, when you establish a relationship between two tasks, you can specify a lag. Lag indicates the gap time between two tasks.

You can specify lag in the Task Information -> Predecessors tab:

Figure 1

Or in the table view:

Figure 2

There are two type of lag: delay and overlap.

Delay is indicated by a positive lag value and is called lag time in MS Project. It specifies that the successor task will start only after N days the predecessor task is completed (based on finish-start relationship). Figure 2 is an example of lag time (with positive two day lag).

Overlap is indicated by a negative lag value and is called lead time in MS Project. It specifies that the successor task will start N days before the predecessor task is completed (based on finish-start relationship). Figure 3 is an example of lead time (with negative one day lag).


Figure 3