How to measure the network topology

The network topology of a project network is an important parameter in the choice of project control approach, as discussed in the book Measuring Time.

ProTrack calculates this topological network structure using four indicators between 0 and 1. The intuitive meaning of the four indicators is briefly discussed along the following lines. An indication is given of their meaning for the extreme values 0 and 1, but obviously, all intermediate values can occur in real projects.

• Serial/Parallel Indicator (SP): Measures how closely the project network lies to a 100% parallel (SP = 0) or 100% serial (SP = 1) network. This indicator can be considered as a measure for the amount of critical and non-critical activities in a network. This network parameter is an input parameter during project generation, while the three others are output parameters.
• Activity Distribution (AD): Measures the distribution of the activities along the network, from a uniformly distribution across the project network (AD = 0) to a highly skewed distribution (e.g. a lot of activities in the beginning, following by only a few activities near the end) (AD = 1). Consequently, the AD indicator serves as a measure for the workload variability.
• Length of Arcs (LA): Measures the length of each precedence relation between two activities as the distance between two activities in the project network. A project network can have many precedence relations between two activities lying far from each other (LA = 0) and hence, most activities can be shifted further in the network. When all precedence relations have a length of one (LA = 1), all project activities have only immediate successors with little freedom to shift.
• Topological Float (TF): Measures the degrees of freedom for each activity as the amount of slack or float an activity has in the project network. TF = 0 when the network structure is 100% dense and no activities can be shifted within its structure. A network with TF = 1 consists of one serial chain of activities without topological float (this chain defines the SP value) while the remaining activities have a maximal float value.