At GDC 2013 Noah Falstein talked about the technique LucasArts used to design its adventure games. The article from Gamasutra linked below is cool for the info and for showing a piece of the puzzle dependency chart from Grim Fandango.
If you’re interested in creating adventure games you may as well listen to the guys who have been there and done that. 😉
Gamasutra – News – The technique LucasArts used to design its classic adventure games