An integrated survey of deterministic project scheduling

There have been many survey papers in the area of project scheduling in recent years. These papers have primarily emphasized modeling and algorithmic contributions for specific classes of project scheduling problems, such as net present value (NPV) maximization and makespan minimization, with and without resource constraints. Paralleling these developments has been the research in the area of project scheduling decision support, with its emphasis on data sets, data generation methods, and so on, that are essential to benchmark, evaluate, and compare the new models, algorithms and heuristic techniques. These investigations have extended the frontiers of research and application in all areas of project scheduling and management. In this paper, we survey the vast literature in this area with a perspective that integrates models, data, and optimal and heuristic algorithms, for the major classes of project scheduling problems. We also include recent surveys that have compared commercial project scheduling systems. Finally, we present an overview of web-based decision support systems and discuss the potential of this technology in enabling and facilitating researchers and practitioners in identifying new areas of inquiry and application.     

Corporate planning and project evaluation in urban transport

The paper describes the development of corporate objectives by Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive, the largest urban transport operator in the U.K. outside London. Four corporate objectives, each covering a different dimension of performance, have been adopted. The objectives pose problems for project evaluation because a project can contribute positively to one or more, and negatively to another or others. A technique for overcoming these problems, using the ‘trade-off’ concept, is being developed, and the practical application of this technique to two major investments is discussed in detail.     

面向客户的项目管理过程

客户关系作为项目管理过程中的重要方面需要引起项目实施团队的高度重视,面向客户的项目管理过程是在项目实施中管理客户关系的有效方法。本文探讨了客户关系在项目过程中的重要性,根据客户在项目实施过程中的角色及项目过程中项目团队与客户间的常见冲突,结合项目实施的五大管理过程提出在项目实施过程中进行客户关系管理的主要工作。     

一种策略层项目计划的双目标优化方法

针对产品开发项目管理的实际情况,对策略层计划优化方法进行研究。以工作包的工作量估算为基础,以资源投入水平和工期最小化为目标,考虑各种约束条件,提出一种策略层项目计划问题的混合整数规划问题模型。以非支配遗传算法NSGA-II为基础框架,设计了一种改进的双目标遗传算法。该算法针对问题的特点,提出了基于资源平滑的解码算法。参考NSGA-III的关键特征,对拥挤密度计算方法进行改进。通过企业实际项目案例,验证了算法的性能和所提出的策略层项目计划方法的有效性。     

Information Technology Project Escalation: A Process Model*

Information technology (IT) a common and costly problem. While much is known about the factors that promote escalation behavior, little is known about the actual escalation process. This article uses an in‐depth case study to construct a process model of escalation, consisting of three phases: drift, unsuccessful incremental adaptation, and rationalized continuation. Each phase encompasses several within‐phase escalation catalysts and the model also identifies triggering conditions that promote transition from one phase to the next: project framing (antecedent condition), problem emergence, increased problem visibility, and imminent threat to project continuation (triggering the outcome deescalation). The results show that escalation is not necessarily the result of collective belief in the infallibility of a project. Rather, escalation results from continued unsuccessful coping with problems that arise during a project. Furthermore, the results suggest that the seeds of escalation are sown early: the very manner in which a project is framed contributes to whether or not the project will become prone to escalation. As problems ensue, repeated mismatches between attempted remedies and underlying problems contribute to fueling the escalation process. Implications for research and practice are discussed.     

随机抽样算法在多项目调度中的应用

针对资源约束下的多项目调度问题,扩展了单项目进度生产机制,并在此基础上设计了多项目调度的随机抽样算法。通过对比分析,说明不同的任务优先规则对随机抽样算法具有不同的影响,其中采用MINSLK等优先规则的随机抽样算法能够有效地缩短项目平均工期。与其他多项目调度启发式算法的比较和统计检验,说明随机抽样算法显著优于这些常用的启发式算法。     

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.     

An exchange heuristic for resource constrained scheduling with consideration given to opportunities for parallel processing

This paper describes a heuristic which produces efficient makespans for resource-constrained scheduling problems with parallel processing capabilities. This heuristic was initially developed for the scheduling of army battalion training exercises. The original heuristic has also been successfully applied to solve problems in project scheduling with limited resources, generalized job shop scheduling, and resource-constrained scheduling. The exchange heuristic requires an initial feasible solution upon which it improves the makespan by efficiently and systematically shuffling activities while maintaining feasibility. The method has recently been modified twice, termed the intelligent version and naive version, respectively, such that its ability to reduce the initial makespan is enhanced. In this study     

Approaches to solve the fleet-assignment,aircraft-routing,crew-pairing and crew-rostering problems of a regional carrier

This paper presents the results of a research project funded by a regional carrier operating inter-island services within the Canary Islands (Spain) in addition to services to Morocco and Portugal. It operates between 100 and 150 flights a day using three airline operators. The main scope of the project was to solve fleet-assignment, aircraft-routing, crew-pairing and crew-rostering problems on real-world data. The special characteristics of the carrier, flying between 7 am and 11 pm every day, have motivated us to design models and algorithms that are different than the ones addressed in the literature, typically built for large airline companies. This paper shows a solution approach for an integrated fleet-assignment, aircraft-routing and crew-pairing problem covering the flights of a single day. This is a new combinatorial problem that can be considered as a 2-depot vehicle routing problem with driver changes, where the vehicles represent aircrafts and the drivers represent crews. Adapting approaches from the vehicle routing literature, this paper describes a heuristic algorithm based on an integer programming model. In a similar way, this paper also addresses the rostering problem. This problem can be decomposed in smaller problems taking into account operators, bases and crew groups. These problems admit a compact formulation through mixed integer linear programming models which can be tracked by modern general-purpose solvers. This paper illustrates the success of our solution approaches on real-world instances. The airline carrier is currently using these approaches.     

工程合同冲突协调的经济学计算研究

本文运用已获得的理论研究结果对工程合同冲突问题的协商解决构造了业主和承包商的多属性效用函数,建立交易双方价值最大化的合同谈判模型,并用数字模拟求得合同订立的公平解决方案.基于合同订立状态,对工程合同执行过程中经常出现的变更,索赔和仲裁等问题建立相应的次优化模型,并用数字模拟求得合同变更,索赔和仲裁相应的解决方案.尽管本文的工作是以工程合同为例,并具有一定程度的理想性,但对解决各种合同的实际冲突问题仍是一种有价值的参考方法.     

基于实物期权的研发项目动态投资决策模型

本文基于实物期权理论,针对研发项目阶段性特点,结合博弈论的思想,分析了多个研发项目组成的投资状态组合,构建了研发项目动态选择模型。首先,根据研发项目多阶段的特征,利用孪生证券的思想,基于实物期权理论,建立了项目中止决策准则;在此基础上分析研发项目的投资决策状态,建立了二十五个状态的切换场景;然后通过实际算例对模型进行验证和分析,得出了研发项目投资的影响范围概念图,最终实现两个项目的最优投资决策目标。     

基础设施BOT电厂项目中的政府购买保证研究

利用博弈论方法建立了政府在给予BOT电厂项目购买保证时,应如何确定最优保证购买电量,以及项目公司在政府给予的保证购买电量基础上,应如何确定最优自销电量的决策模型,求得了该完全信息动态博弈模型的精炼纳什均衡解,并根据该均衡解的性质,探讨了目前政府确定保证购买电量的思路所存在的问题,分析了保证购买价格对政府的保证购买电量决策和项目公司的自销电量决策产生的影响.最后,通过算例验证了模型的可行性和对均衡解性质所作分析的正确性.     

基于CMM与OPM3的软件项目关键成功因素分析

本文在对软件项目管理和项目管理成熟度模型发展讨论的基础上,根据中国项目项目管理知识体系以及我国软件企业中软件项目管理和软件能力成熟度模型的发展中所出现的问题,总结和归纳了影响软件项目管理的31个关键影响因素,建立了软件项目管理三层次模型。通过对软件项目管理人员以调查问卷的形式收集数据资料,利用因子分析验证了软件项目管理三层次模型的正确性和可行性,以期通过软件项目管理提高我国软件企业CMM等级。     

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。     

Improving coordination in an engineer-to-order supply chain using a soft systems approach

An empirical study in the ship-building sector has been undertaken to understand the problems associated with the coordination of engineer-to-order (ETO) supply chains and to reveal insights into opportunities for improvements based on the application of soft systems methodology. A number of alternatives to improve coordination of supply chain have been proposed based on the comparison between a soft systems model and actual practice. These alternatives were summarised into seven general principles that help define the role of individual companies in coordinating ETO supply chains, highlighting the company’s structures and interdependencies that lead to project tardiness. Due to the specific nature of a project which changes according to the context, it is difficult to generalise the soft systems model. Nevertheless, future research can further explore some of the principles proposed to deal with coordination problems experienced in other types of ETO project operations, such as construction and oil and gas.     

Multimode time-cost-robustness trade-off project scheduling problem under uncertainty

The time/cost trade-off problem is a well-known project scheduling problem that has been extensively studied. In recent years, many researchers have begun to focus on project scheduling problems under uncertainty to cope with uncertain factors, such as resource idleness, high inventory, and missing deadlines. To reduce the disturbance from uncertain factors, the aim of robust scheduling is to generate schedules with time buffers or resource buffers, which are capped by project makespan and project cost. This paper addresses a time-cost-robustness trade-off project scheduling problem with multiple activity execution modes under uncertainty. A multiobjective optimization model with three objectives (makespan minimization, cost minimization, and robustness maximization) is constructed and three propositions are proposed. An epsilon-constraint method-based genetic algorithm along with three improvement measures is designed to solve this NP-hard problem and to develop Pareto schedule sets, and a large-scale computational experiment on a randomly generated dataset is performed to validate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm and the improvement measures. The final sensitivity analysis of three key parameters shows their distinctive influences on the three objectives, according to which several suggestions are given to project managers on the effective measures to improve the three objectives.

     

Integrated project operations and personnel scheduling with multiple labour classes

The main theme of this paper is improving project schedules by integrating the scheduling of project jobs and labour resources. An ILP model is presented of the integrated project operations and personnel scheduling problem with multiple labour categories. Traditionally, this problem is solved in two steps: first, operations are scheduled by solving the resource-constrained project scheduling problem; then, labour categories are scheduled by solving the personnel days-off scheduling problem. The proposed model combines the two stages into an integrated problem, which is solved in one step. Using 48 test problems, the two methods were compared in terms of total cost, labour cost and scheduling efficiency. The results clearly indicate that the integrated model outperforms the traditional two-step method.     

基础研究学科发展的宏观知识挖掘

本文提出了一种学科发展分析的宏观知识挖掘思路和方法.从整体上、宏观上对蕴含于基础研究项目建议书(Proposal)中的知识进行挖掘,并在挖掘的基础之上对基础研究的学科发展趋势、特点,学科领域的分化、融合以及交叉等进行分析,并从学科整体、学科领域和项目等三个层面对基础研究的科研管理工作提供基于知识的决策支持.     

考虑公平偏好的双重信息不对称下PPP项目激励机制研究

PPP项目中社会资本的能力禀赋和努力水平为其私有信息,如何激励社会资本显示真实的能力禀赋和努力水平一直是PPP项目治理研究的重要议题。在传统的PPP项目激励治理研究中,往往假设社会资本只具有单一私有信息,由此形成单一的逆向选择或道德风险问题。但在PPP激励治理现实中,社会资本经常同时拥有关于能力禀赋和努力水平双重私有信息,从而导致关于类型不对称信息的逆向选择和关于行为不对称信息的道德风险问题共存。本文研究了PPP项目中逆向选择和道德风险共存的激励机制设计问题。构建了针对社会资本同时拥有能力禀赋和努力水平两种私有信息的激励机制设计模型。该模型以项目产出绩效为激励途径,通过设计最优契约使得社会资本谎报信息类型的收益水平不高于其真实汇报类型的收益,从而激励社会资本显示真实能力禀赋的同时付出最优努力水平,保证项目效率。同时考虑了社会资本的公平偏好,探讨了公平偏好对这种双重不对称信息激励机制设计的影响。研究表明：通过设计合理的PPP项目激励机制能够实现对社会资本的信息甄别和激励其付出最优努力的双重目的,政府对社会资本的激励强度同社会资本市场分布有关,且随着社会资本嫉妒偏好强度的提高和被指责偏好强度的减弱而增大。本文的研究可以为解决现实中PPP项目的激励机制设计问题提供理论依据和决策参考。     

SCAT AND SPAT: LARGE-SCALE COMPUTER-BASED OPTIMIZATION SYSTEMS FOR THE PERSONNEL ASSIGNMENT PROBLEM

The personnel assignment problem involves the assignment of people to tasks, projects, etc., in a manner that maximizes a measure of aggregate utility for the assignees subject to several assignment constraints. In addition to computationally efficient solution algorithms, the effective implementation of mathematical models to solve the personnel assignment problem must include data processing systems with comprehensive error checking/resolution procedures, end user reports, documentation, and training. This paper summarizes two successful computer-based systems for solving large-scale personnel assignment problems that frequently occur in university settings. SCAT, the Student-Company Assignment Technique, assigns students to job interview slots. SPAT, the Student-Project Assignment Technique, assigns students to project teams in an MBA field project course. The SCAT and SPAT approaches can be generalized to a wide variety of personnel assignment problems in university, industry, government, and military settings.