finishtofinish

Finish-to-finish (FF) is a dependency type used in project management and scheduling. It links two activities such that the completion of the successor is constrained by the completion of the predecessor. The two activities may start at different times, and a lag can be specified to adjust their alignment.

With a finish-to-finish relationship, the successor cannot finish before the predecessor finishes; if the predecessor finishes earlier, the successor must wait or finish later depending on the lag. If the lag is zero, the two tasks tend to finish at the same moment; positive lag delays the successor’s finish.

Practically, FF is useful when a deliverable cannot be considered complete until another deliverable has also completed, such as final assembly and final quality assurance, or packaging and labeling that must be finished in tandem. It is commonly configured in scheduling software as FF; project managers should monitor its effect on the critical path and guard against creating artificial bottlenecks. Unlike finish-to-start, FF does not constrain when the successor can begin, only when it can finish, which can lead to overlapping work streams and added complexity.

FF is one of the four basic dependency types in traditional CPM/PERT terminology; the others are finish-to-start, start-to-start, and start-to-finish. Some tools label it as FF or F-F.