Total Relationships

Total Relationships is a metric showing how many dependency ties (relationships) are defined across all tasks in a project schedule. It reflects how many tasks depend on others. A well-built schedule doesn’t just list tasks; it builds logic between them so the flow of work makes sense.

Use this metric to gauge the realism of your schedule. A higher number of meaningful relationships generally means your schedule is more accurate and reflective of real work.

• If your total relationship ratio is too low, the schedule may under-represent dependencies, causing the critical path to be wrong, leaving resource allocations inefficient, and making risk estimation weak.
• If it's too high, you can over-complicate the schedule: too many weak or unnecessary relationships can clutter the logic, confuse stakeholders, and may slow down updates or analysis.

Maintaining the right balance of relationships is essential to ensure your schedule remains accurate, realistic, and easy to manage.