Setting tolerance limits for statistical project control using earned value management

Project control has been a research topic since decades that attracts both academics and practitioners. Project control systems indicate the direction of change in preliminary planning variables compared with actual performance. In case their current project performance deviates from the planned performance, a warning is indicated by the system in order to take corrective actions.Earned value management/earned schedule (EVM/ES) systems have played a central role in project control, and provide straightforward key performance metrics that measure the deviations between planned and actual performance in terms of time and cost. In this paper, a new statistical project control procedure sets tolerance limits to improve the discriminative power between progress situations that are either statistically likely or less likely to occur under the project baseline schedule. In this research, the tolerance limits are derived from subjective estimates for the activity durations of the project. Using the existing and commonly known EVM/ES metrics, the resulting project control charts will have an improved ability to trigger actions when variation in a project׳s progress exceeds certain predefined thresholdsA computational experiment has been set up to test the ability of these statistical project control charts to discriminate between variations that are either acceptable or unacceptable in the duration of the individual activities. The computational experiments compare the use of statistical tolerance limits with traditional earned value management thresholds and validate their power to report warning signals when projects tend to deviate significantly from the baseline schedule.     

基于柔性资源约束的前摄性项目调度优化研究

不确定环境中,项目进度计划鲁棒性的高低直接影响项目能否顺利实施。本文研究了具有随机活动工期的柔性资源约束下的前摄性项目调度优化问题,目标是在柔性资源和项目工期的约束下,借助对活动开始时间合理的进行安排进而得到拥有最大鲁棒性的进度计划。首先对研究问题进行界定;随后构建优化模型,并根据问题NP-hard属性和模型特点设计了双层嵌套禁忌搜索启发式算法,通过内外两层交互搜索寻找满意解;最后通过一个实际案例对本文研究进行说明,并分析关键参数对进度计划鲁棒性的影响,得到如下结论:相对于资源无柔性情况下的项目进度计划而言,资源具备柔性后得到的项目进度计划的鲁棒性更高,具有更强的抗干扰能力,能够保证项目稳定执行;同时,项目进度计划鲁棒性分别随着项目工期的延长、资源可用量的增加或资源柔性的提高而上升。     

活动重叠模式与资源约束下的项目调度优化

采取活动重叠模式通常是加速研发的有效手段,带有活动重叠的资源受限项目调度问题是经典资源受限项目调度问题的扩展.首先,深入分析了活动重叠对于项目调度的影响,对活动重叠及其不确定进行详细描述与建模,提出了活动重叠导致下游活动返工时间的二项分布概率模型;其次,构建了以最小化研发项目期望工期为目标的优化调度模型,设计了基于串行进度生成机制的遗传算法对大规模问题进行优化求解;最后,基于PSPLIB J60问题库中480个算例分析了该算法的计算结果,并考察了网络参数、资源参数和重叠参数变化时,采用活动重叠模式对缩短项目工期的影响.研究结果表明:活动对资源的需求强度越小或资源稀缺程度越低,可重叠活动对数量就会增加,项目工期缩短得越明显;网络复杂度的变化对缩短项目工期的影响不大;项目中重叠活动对越多,重叠导致的下游活动返工的概率越小,项目工期缩短的越明显.     

基于资源流网络优化的Max-npv项目调度

活动拖期通过资源流网络的传递会严重影响项目的净现值收益。针对该问题，本文首先在确定性环境下采用模拟退火算法(SA)构建了Max-NPV(Maximize the Net Present Value)非鲁棒性基准调度计划，然后考虑到活动工期的不确定性，设计了MEPC(Minimize Expected Penalty Cost)资源流网络优化算法，通过鲁棒性资源分配实现净现值期望惩罚成本最小化。大规模仿真对比实验结果表明，在活动工期低、中、高三种不确定性程度下，相对于采用随机资源分配算法(SA+RRAS)构建的非鲁棒性调度计划，SA+MEPC算法构建的鲁棒性调度计划在项目净现值实际收益、调度计划的“解”鲁棒性和“质”鲁棒性三个方面都取得了更好的结果，并且应对活动拖期风险的能力也更强。     

USING A LATE-START RESOURCE-CONSTRAINED PROJECT SCHEDULE TO IMPROVE PROJECT NET PRESENT VALUE*

Although literature on the achievement of monetary objectives in a resource-constrained project environment is limited, the maximization of project net present value (NPV) is an important criterion of project success. This paper presents a procedure for developing a late-start resource-constrained project schedule using the critical path method-material requirements planning. Using an extensive set of problems from the literature, we show that this procedure yields a higher NPV and lower average duration than schedules derived with heuristics that schedule each activity as early as possible. In addition, while the late-start schedule on average was significantly longer than the optimal-duration resource-constrained schedule, no significant difference occurred in the average NPVs of the two scheduling methods.     

资源受限下平行工序顺序对优化的0-1规划模型

资源受限是工程项目时刻都可能面对的挑战。由于资源限制,需要将原项目计划中相互之间无优先关系的平行工序调整为顺序工序。平行工序顺序化可导致项目工期延迟,因此需考虑如何使项目工期延迟最小。该平行工序顺序优化问题是项目调度问题,也是排列组合问题,通常难度很大,包括一些NP-hard问题。本文主要研究该问题的一类典型子问题——平行工序顺序对优化,即如何将项目中某2n个平行工序调整为n个顺序工序对,并且对项目工期的影响最小。该问题的总方案数可达到（2n）!/n!。本文借助工序网络（如CPM网络）,运用简单的时间参数量化了平行工序顺序化对项目工期的影响,进而降低问题的求解难度,建立了纯0-1规划模型。实验验证了该模型的求解效率,求解100个平行工序规模的问题平均耗时0.2605秒,而求解500个平行工序规模的问题平均耗时10.66秒。     

Risk,Process Maturity,and Project Performance: An Empirical Analysis of US Federal Government Technology Projects

In recent years, there has been increasing pressure on the US federal government to reduce spending and improve the management of its technology projects. Mitigating the adverse impact of risks on the performance of these projects presents a significant challenge for its stakeholders. Our research examines this challenge in two steps. First, we identify and define a set of salient risks in federal technology projects—specifically, complexity risk and contracting risk in the planning process, and execution risk in the execution process. Next, we investigate whether higher levels of process maturity, assessed by the Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) framework, mitigate the negative effect of project risks on project performance. The analysis of time‐series data collected from 82 federal technology projects across 519 quarterly time periods indicates that each of the three types of risks has a significant negative effect on project performance. This finding highlights the practical significance of managing these risks in the federal technology project context. Further, we find that increasing levels of process maturity attenuate the negative effect of project risks on the performance of federal technology projects. However, the attenuation effects are consequential only at high levels of project risks; at low levels of project risk, increasing levels of process maturity can adversely affect project performance. To demonstrate the financial implications of increasing process maturity levels in federal technology projects, we examine the magnitude of project cost savings (and overruns) across different levels of CMMI and project risks. In summary, our study contributes to the sparse literature on public sector operations by addressing the understudied context of federal technology projects, and provides a nuanced examination of the implications of process maturity in managing the risk to performance relationship in such projects.     

The Surgical Scheduling Problem: Current Research and Future Opportunities

This paper reviews the general problem of surgical scheduling. We organize the literature based on the time frame or planning horizon of the schedule into six categories: capacity planning, process reengineering/redesign, the surgical services portfolio, procedure duration estimation, schedule construction, and schedule execution, monitoring, and control. We survey past work and suggest topics for potential future research in each of those areas.     

考虑作业空间干涉的工程项目时间-成本均衡优化研究

工程现场的空间资源是制约工程活动开展的重要影响因素。本文研究考虑空间干涉的工程调度优化问题,定义作业空间干涉的度量方式和作业效率函数,建立工程调度的工期-成本双目标优化模型。针对问题特征设计相对延迟编码方式和解码机制,采用NSGA-II算法求解模型。以某工程案例为研究对象,通过与传统方法对比实验验证了模型和算法的有效性,接着分析了算法的最大延迟时间参数对算法性能的影响。实验结果表明,本文提出的模型和算法能有效提升工程进度和成本目标。     

On the dynamic use of project performance and schedule risk information during projecttracking

Project scheduling, risk analysis and project tracking are key parameters to a project's success or failure. Research on the relative sensitivity of project activities during the project scheduling phase as well as research on project performance measurement during project progress have been published throughout the academic literature and the popular press. Obviously, the interest in activity sensitivity information and project performance measurement from both the academics and the practitioners lies in the need to focus a project manager's attention on those activities that influence the performance of the project. When management has knowledge about the current project performance and has a certain feeling of the relative sensitivity of the various project activities on the project objective, a better management focus and a more accurate response during project tracking should positively contribute to the overall performance of the project.     

Managing a Portfolio of Product Development Projects under Resource Constraints

Managers of product development (PD) project portfolios face difficult decisions in allocating limited resources to minimize project or portfolio delay. Although PD projects are highly iterative (cyclical), almost all of the vast literature on project scheduling assumes that projects are acyclical. This article addresses this gap with a comprehensive analysis of 31 priority rules (PRs) on 18,480 portfolios containing 55,440 iterative projects. We find that the best PRs for iterative project portfolios differ significantly from those for acyclical ones, and that the best PRs at the project level differ from those at the portfolio level. The best PR depends on project and portfolio characteristics such as network density, iteration intensity, resource loading profile, and amount of resource contention. In particular, by amplifying the effects of iteration, high‐density networks hold dramatically different implications for iterative projects. Moreover, the best PR also differs depending on whether the objective is to minimize the average delay to all projects or to minimize delay to the overall portfolio. Thus, a project or portfolio manager who uses the same PR on all occasions will exhibit unnecessarily poor performance in most cases.     

工期-质量协调均衡的项目导向型供应链跨组织激励

在假定项目型组织之间平等合作的基础上,从项目价值增值最大化角度,考虑工期-质量目标努力成本关系,构建并剖析工期-质量协调均衡的项目导向型供应链跨组织激励模型,并对模型进行数据模拟和算例分析。结果表明,不论工期-质量目标间努力成本是否存在线性关系,以调整不同控制目标的激励强度为协调手段,实施工期-质量协调激励策略不仅可实现项目导向型供应链项目价值增值的最大化,而且可实现合作双方净收益的帕累托改善,进而使得承包商在工期-质量目标上合理分配资源和努力水平,实现项目工期-质量目标间的协调均衡。     

The Effects of Learning,Forgetting, and Relearning on Decision Rule Performance in Multiproject Scheduling

Product development occurs in multiproject environments where preemption is often allowed so that critical projects can be addressed immediately. Because product development is characterized by time-based competition, there is pressure to make decisions quickly using heuristics methods that yield fast project completion. Preemption heuristics are needed both to choose activities for preemption and then to determine which resources to use to restart preempted activities. Past research involving preemption has ignored any completion time penalty due to the forgetting experienced by project personnel during preemption and the resulting relearning time required to regain lost proficiency. The purpose of this research is to determine the impact of learning, forgetting, and relearning (LFR) on project completion time when preemption is allowed. We present a model for the LFR cycle in multiproject development environments. We test a number of priority rules for activity scheduling, activity preemption, and resource assignment subsequent to preemption, subject to the existence of the LFR cycle, for which a single type of knowledge worker resource is assigned among multiple projects. The results of the simulation experiments clearly demonstrate that LFR effects are significant. The tests of different scheduling, preemption, and resource reassignment rules show that the choice of rule is crucial in mitigating the completion time penalty effects of the LFR cycle, while maintaining high levels of resource utilization. Specifically, the worst performing rules tested for each performance measure are those that attempt to maintain high resource utilization. The best performing rules are based on activity criticality and resource learning.     

Managing Knowledge Creation in High‐Tech R&D Projects: A Multimethod Study

R&D projects in high‐tech organizations bring together diverse knowledge domains to quickly develop new products and processes. The fast‐paced context of high‐tech organizations makes it challenging to create new knowledge and solve complex problems. Managing these R&D projects requires understanding both the mechanisms and the type of knowledge created to achieve project objectives. This research conducts a two‐phased multimethod study to understand knowledge creation in high‐tech R&D projects. The first phase uses qualitative data to develop a theory on knowledge creation in R&D projects. The second phase involves a survey that collects data from R&D projects to test the theory. Results from the case study find that R&D projects benefit from two types of knowledge – objective and intuitive. The case analyses show that intuitive and objective knowledge creation in high‐tech organizations occurs by creating not only diverse but also psychological safe project teams. The large‐scale survey finds that team diversity positively influences objective knowledge creation while psychological safety affects intuitive knowledge creation. Surprisingly, the results show that team diversity negatively affects intuitive knowledge creation. A post hoc analysis takes a more granular look at diversity and shows that different kinds of diversity have different effects on knowledge creation. This helps to better explain how to manage innovation across boundaries. Finally, the analysis shows that both objective and intuitive knowledge influence R&D project performance. Taken together, these results help explain how to manage innovation across functional boundaries to create knowledge and enhance R&D project performance.      

Using activity sensitivity and network topology information to monitor project time performance

The interest in activity sensitivity from both the academics and the practitioners lies in the need to focus a project manager's attention on those activities that influence the performance of the project. When management has a certain feeling of the relative sensitivity of the various parts (activities) on the project objective, a better management's focus and a more accurate response during project tracking should positively contribute to the overall performance of the project.     

复杂不确定环境下活动可拆分的项目资源鲁棒性调度优化

复杂不确定环境下,制定一个具有较强抗干扰能力的基准进度计划非常必要。本文研究了活动工期不确定环境下考虑活动可拆分的项目资源鲁棒性调度优化问题,旨在考虑活动可拆分,探究在活动优先关系约束、项目截止日期约束、活动拆分约束、资源流约束等条件下如何进行活动拆分决策并合理地安排各个项目活动/活动分段间的资源调配方案和时间缓冲添加策略,以制定鲁棒性最大化的基准进度计划。本文创新点如下：1)在项目资源鲁棒性调度优化问题中考虑活动可拆分,定义了资源流网络下活动自由时差的计算方法,提出了一种新的活动可拆分情形下进度计划鲁棒性的衡量方式,进而构建得到了考虑活动可拆分的项目资源鲁棒性调度优化模型;2)分析证明了问题模型的强NP-hard属性以及非线性属性,并在此基础上开发了一种内嵌资源调度安排的遗传算法进行问题求解;3)选取一个典型的实际案例对研究问题进行说明,直观展示了活动拆分执行对进度计划鲁棒性提升的重要价值,揭示了鲁棒性调度计划中资源调度方案的重要性,得到了活动拆分执行会增加项目内部资源转移次数的结论。     

RCPSPDC的一种启发式算法

在资源约束条件下,如何最大化项目净现值是目前项目规划研究的重点问题。本文研究了一次付款项目支付模式下的RCPSPDC,提出了一种Min{L＆F}启发式算法。该算法比较可行工序集中各工序的Min{L＆F}值,据此确定规划顺序,进而完成整个项目的规划,实现最大化项目净现值的目标。最后,本文在算例应用与算法比较的基础上,验证了Min{L＆F}算法的有效性。     

基于整数规划强对偶求解一类局域性资源受限项目调度问题

资源受限项目调度问题(简称RCPSP)是最具代表性的项目调度问题之一,调度过程可理解为,将受资源约束的平行工序调整为顺序工序。本文针对实际中广泛存在的资源局域、而非全局受限的情况,研究局域性RCPSP,并重点考虑一类问题：项目某环节的一系列平行工序,可用资源量只有一半,各资源可重复利用且具有相应多功能,但最多能承担2个工序,需将这些工序两两排列成对,实现项目工期最短。本文首先探索问题“局域性”特征,量化局域调度对项目工期的影响;基于此,构建只涵盖“局域调度工序”的0-1规划模型;再者,发展整数规划强对偶理论,结合Dangzig-Wolfe分解等方法,提出多项式时间的精确算法;最后通过算例测试,验证算法优势,例如,计算大规模算例的最优解,运用该算法比常规精确方法可快数万倍以上。     

基于突变的项目组合共享资源竞争拥挤研究

对于以项目方式进行管理或生产的企业来说,共享资源在多项目、特别是项目组合(project portfolio,PP)中的合理配置是企业运营所需要解决的重要问题,对企业实现可持续发展起着关键的支撑作用。本文将突变理论引入项目组合管理问题中,在类比交通系统中车辆对交通资源竞争的基础上,提出了项目组合系统共享资源竞争拥挤概念,并对其基础变量进行了详细分析;其次,本文分析了项目组合共享资源竞争拥挤势函数和竞争稳定性,构建了以系统效率最大化为决策目标的项目组合共享资源竞争拥挤模型;最后,通过HD集团的案例分析对项目组合共享资源竞争拥挤模型的可实践性进行了验证,并以此为基础,针对项目组合管理提出了共享资源的改进管理方案。     

Project Scheduling—Theory and Practice

The project scheduling problem involves the scheduling of project activities subject to precedence and/or resource constraints. Of obvious practical importance, it has been the subject of intensive research since the late fifties. A wide variety of commercialized project management software packages have been put to practical use. Despite all these efforts, numerous reports reveal that many projects escalate in time and budget and that many project scheduling procedures have not yet found their way to practical use. The objective of this paper is to confront project scheduling theory with project scheduling practice. We provide a generic hierarchical project planning and control framework that serves to position the various project planning procedures and discuss important research opportunities, the exploration of which may help to close the theory‐practice gap.