CostDensityx
CostDensityx is a quantitative metric used in cost management to measure how expenditures are distributed over a defined horizon, such as a project timeline, a fiscal period, or a set of resources. The metric aims to complement total cost and rate measures by indicating whether spending is concentrated in short intervals or spread evenly over time. By signaling clustering of costs, CostDensityx supports budgeting, forecasting, and resource allocation decisions.
Definition and calculation: Given a project timeline subdivided into equal time slots with a nonnegative cost
Interpretation: A higher CostDensityx indicates that a large share of spending occurs in a small portion of
Applications and variants: Variants include dimensional forms across resources, where density is computed separately for labor,
Limitations: CostDensityx is sensitive to window size, outliers, and data granularity, and does not by itself