How many iterations are required in a simulation?
The number of iterations required depends upon the risks you have assigned to the project. Normally, the minimum number of iterations is 200 and can be adequate on small, non-strategic projects. However, if you have risks that have a very low chance of occurring, but have a potential large impact, the results will not account for this risk unless you run sufficient simulations. For example, your project has a 0.5% chance of being cancelled due to political instability. You must run at least 200 iterations, just to ensure just to ensure that the simulation runs a single occurrence of this risk. To adequately model these types of risks, we recommend a minimum of 600 simulations.
