PMP · Question #1150
A project team is in the planning stage and has prepared a list of activities and completed sequencing the activities. During a review, the team noted that there is a dependency missing between: - Tes
The correct answer is B. Finish to start. During planning, the project team identified a missing dependency: the product must be tested before it can be released to the customer. This sequential relationship needs to be accurately represented in the schedule.
Question
A project team is in the planning stage and has prepared a list of activities and completed sequencing the activities. During a review, the team noted that there is a dependency missing between:
- Test the product
- Release to customer
According to the quality management plan, the product must be tested before being released. How should the project manager enter this dependency?
Options
- AStart to start
- BFinish to start
- CFinish to finish
- DStart to finish
How the community answered
(32 responses)- B91% (29)
- C3% (1)
- D6% (2)
Why each option
During planning, the project team identified a missing dependency: the product must be tested before it can be released to the customer. This sequential relationship needs to be accurately represented in the schedule.
Start-to-Start (SS) means the successor activity can start when the predecessor activity starts, which does not ensure that testing is finished before the release begins.
A Finish-to-Start (FS) dependency means that the successor activity ('Release to customer') cannot begin until the predecessor activity ('Test the product') has been fully completed. This relationship accurately captures the requirement that testing must finish before the release process can start.
Finish-to-Finish (FF) means the successor activity can finish when the predecessor activity finishes, which would allow the release to start long before testing is complete.
Start-to-Finish (SF) means the successor activity cannot finish until the predecessor activity starts, a rarely used dependency type that does not fit the requirement of testing completing before release.
Concept tested: Activity sequencing and dependency types
Source: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/project/link-tasks-in-a-project-fs-ss-ff-sf
Topics
Community Discussion
8
Bao N.May 30, 2026Confirmed B on this one. The stem gives it away with "must be tested before being released," which is textbook finish to start: testing has to finish before release can start. A trips people up because they think the activities run together, but the quality plan explicitly gates release on completed testing. If you see "before" or "must complete first" language, it is almost always FS.
Olusegun A.May 31, 2026Agreed on B, but worth noting that "before" alone is not always FS, since "must complete first" is the real trigger here, so train your eye on the dependency language that explicitly gates the successor.
Olusegun A.May 25, 2026B is the classic finish to start dependency and the PMBOK default for mandatory logical sequences. The quality management plan makes this a hard mandatory dependency, not a soft preference, so testing must finish before release can start. Saw this near verbatim on my exam in 2019 and almost overthought it because the wording felt too straightforward for a question that deep into the test. Stuck with B because finish to start is what you use when one activity genuinely cannot begin until another ends, and that is exactly the relationship between testing and releasing.
Yusuf A.May 12, 2026B for sure. My senior said testing must finish before release starts, FS. Does anyone know when SF is actually used in real projects?
Zlatan X.May 16, 2026D is the right call here. The quality management plan mandates that testing must be underway before the release can be considered complete, which maps directly to a start-to-finish dependency where the start of testing governs the finish of the release activity.
Bao N.May 16, 2026Actually B is correct here. The key phrase is "sequence of activities" which is a finish-to-start dependency, the most common type, where the predecessor must finish before the successor can start.
Prof. SaraJun 9, 2026Confirmed B on exam last week, and this maps to the Schedule Management domain. The stem gives it away with "must be tested before being released," which is the classic finish to start dependency, though option C tempts you if you overthink the idea of both tasks wrapping up in sequence.
Yusuf A.Jun 10, 2026One of the seniors on my team mentioned that finish to start shows up constantly on the scheduling questions, so B lines up with what he told me to watch for, though I wonder if the phrase "tested before being released" could also trick people into picking C because it sounds like the testing and release overlap somewhat.