For us it's less about onboarding to the team and more of what tech do we need to develop for this product to meet client spec. I'm using it more as an organizational tool to structure which tasks need to be done sequentially (i.e. the API needs to be complete before we can test it with the software) and the tasks that can be done concurrently (i.e. the hardware can be developed and tested the same time as the software, up to a point).

I think you could use a gantt chart to accomplish the same thing. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gantt_chart

And your comment about the dependencies is still accurate for my team since we have to be efficient about doing the concurrent parts together to make sure we get this product to our client on time.

It's been useful for me to visualize all the moving parts of my project and see options that I have in a way that is familiar to me.