A system and method are disclosed for managing the execution of tasks. Each task in a first set of tasks included in a pipeline is queued for parallel execution. The execution of the tasks is monitored by a dispatching engine. When a particular task that specifies a next set of tasks in the pipeline to be executed has completed, the dispatching engine determines whether the next set of tasks can be executed before the remaining tasks in the first set of tasks have completed. When the next set of tasks can be executed before the remaining tasks have completed, the next set of tasks is queued for parallel execution. When the next set of tasks cannot be executed before the remaining tasks have completed, the next set of tasks is queued for parallel execution only after the remaining tasks have completed.