IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/flsman/v28y2016i4d10.1007_s10696-016-9236-8.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A note on the selection of priority rules in software packages for project management

Author

Listed:
  • Philipp Baumann

    (University of Bern)

  • Norbert Trautmann

    (University of Bern)

Abstract

Various software packages for project management include a procedure for resource-constrained scheduling. In several packages, the user can influence this procedure by selecting a priority rule. However, the resource-allocation methods that are implemented in the procedures are proprietary information; therefore, the question of how the priority-rule selection impacts the performance of the procedures arises. We experimentally evaluate the resource-allocation methods of eight recent software packages using the 600 instances of the PSPLIB J120 test set. The results of our analysis indicate that applying the default rule tends to outperform a randomly selected rule, whereas applying two randomly selected rules tends to outperform the default rule. Applying a small set of more than two rules further improves the project durations considerably. However, a large number of rules must be applied to obtain the best possible project durations.

Suggested Citation

  • Philipp Baumann & Norbert Trautmann, 2016. "A note on the selection of priority rules in software packages for project management," Flexible Services and Manufacturing Journal, Springer, vol. 28(4), pages 694-702, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:flsman:v:28:y:2016:i:4:d:10.1007_s10696-016-9236-8
    DOI: 10.1007/s10696-016-9236-8
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10696-016-9236-8
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10696-016-9236-8?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kolisch, Rainer, 1999. "Resource allocation capabilities of commercial project management software packages," Publications of Darmstadt Technical University, Institute for Business Studies (BWL) 7938, Darmstadt Technical University, Department of Business Administration, Economics and Law, Institute for Business Studies (BWL).
    2. Klein, Robert, 2000. "Scheduling of resource constrained projects," Publications of Darmstadt Technical University, Institute for Business Studies (BWL) 1592, Darmstadt Technical University, Department of Business Administration, Economics and Law, Institute for Business Studies (BWL).
    3. Philipp Baumann & Norbert Trautmann, 2015. "Resource-Constrained Project Scheduling with Project Management Information Systems," International Handbooks on Information Systems, in: Christoph Schwindt & Jürgen Zimmermann (ed.), Handbook on Project Management and Scheduling Vol. 2, edition 127, chapter 0, pages 1385-1400, Springer.
    4. Brucker, Peter & Drexl, Andreas & Mohring, Rolf & Neumann, Klaus & Pesch, Erwin, 1999. "Resource-constrained project scheduling: Notation, classification, models, and methods," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 112(1), pages 3-41, January.
    5. Rainer Kolisch, 1999. "Resource Allocation Capabilities of Commercial Project Management Software Packages," Interfaces, INFORMS, vol. 29(4), pages 19-31, August.
    6. De Wit, Jan & Herroelen, Willy, 1990. "An evaluation of microcomputer-based software packages for project management," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 49(1), pages 102-139, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jeff Scales, 2020. "A design science research approach to closing the gap between the research and practice of project scheduling," Systems Research and Behavioral Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(5), pages 804-812, September.
    2. Gehring, Marco & Winkler, Franziska & Volk, Rebekka & Schultmann, Frank, 2021. "Projektmanagementsoftware und Scheduling: Aktuelle Bestandsaufnahme von Funktionalitäten und Identifikation von Potenzialen," Working Paper Series in Production and Energy 60, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Institute for Industrial Production (IIP).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. W Herroelen & R Leus, 2005. "Identification and illumination of popular misconceptions about project scheduling and time buffering in a resource-constrained environment," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 56(1), pages 102-109, January.
    2. Kolisch, R. & Padman, R., 2001. "An integrated survey of deterministic project scheduling," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 29(3), pages 249-272, June.
    3. Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, Institut für Betriebswirtschaftslehre (Ed.), 2000. "Jahresbericht 1999," Manuskripte aus den Instituten für Betriebswirtschaftslehre der Universität Kiel 522, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, Institut für Betriebswirtschaftslehre.
    4. Andreas Schirmer, 2000. "Case‐based reasoning and improved adaptive search for project scheduling," Naval Research Logistics (NRL), John Wiley & Sons, vol. 47(3), pages 201-222, April.
    5. Browning, Tyson R. & Yassine, Ali A., 2010. "Resource-constrained multi-project scheduling: Priority rule performance revisited," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 126(2), pages 212-228, August.
    6. E A Silver, 2004. "An overview of heuristic solution methods," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 55(9), pages 936-956, September.
    7. Naber, Anulark & Kolisch, Rainer, 2014. "MIP models for resource-constrained project scheduling with flexible resource profiles," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 239(2), pages 335-348.
    8. Frank Schultmann & Otto Rentz, 2002. "Scheduling of deconstruction projects under resource constraints," Construction Management and Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(5), pages 391-401.
    9. Krüger, Doreen & Scholl, Armin, 2009. "A heuristic solution framework for the resource constrained (multi-)project scheduling problem with sequence-dependent transfer times," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 197(2), pages 492-508, September.
    10. Mingers, John & White, Leroy, 2010. "A review of the recent contribution of systems thinking to operational research and management science," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 207(3), pages 1147-1161, December.
    11. Bernardo F. Almeida & Isabel Correia & Francisco Saldanha-da-Gama, 2018. "A biased random-key genetic algorithm for the project scheduling problem with flexible resources," TOP: An Official Journal of the Spanish Society of Statistics and Operations Research, Springer;Sociedad de Estadística e Investigación Operativa, vol. 26(2), pages 283-308, July.
    12. Roland Braune & Karl F. Doerner, 2017. "Real-world flexible resource profile scheduling with multiple criteria: learning scalarization functions for MIP and heuristic approaches," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 68(8), pages 952-972, August.
    13. Valls, Vicente & Ballestin, Francisco & Quintanilla, Sacramento, 2005. "Justification and RCPSP: A technique that pays," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 165(2), pages 375-386, September.
    14. Moumene, Khaled & Ferland, Jacques A., 2009. "Activity list representation for a generalization of the resource-constrained project scheduling problem," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 199(1), pages 46-54, November.
    15. Kellenbrink, Carolin & Helber, Stefan, 2015. "Scheduling resource-constrained projects with a flexible project structure," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 246(2), pages 379-391.
    16. Thomas Selle & Jürgen Zimmermann, 2003. "A bidirectional heuristic for maximizing the net present value of large‐scale projects subject to limited resources," Naval Research Logistics (NRL), John Wiley & Sons, vol. 50(2), pages 130-148, March.
    17. Kellenbrink, Carolin & Helber, Stefan, 2014. "Quality- and profit-oriented scheduling of flexible resource-constrained projects," Hannover Economic Papers (HEP) dp-549, Leibniz Universität Hannover, Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Fakultät.
    18. Osman Hürol Türkakın & David Arditi & Ekrem Manisalı, 2021. "Comparison of Heuristic Priority Rules in the Solution of the Resource-Constrained Project Scheduling Problem," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(17), pages 1-17, September.
    19. Thomas Schmitt & Bruce Faaland, 2004. "Scheduling recurrent construction," Naval Research Logistics (NRL), John Wiley & Sons, vol. 51(8), pages 1102-1128, December.
    20. Chen, Jiaqiong & Askin, Ronald G., 2009. "Project selection, scheduling and resource allocation with time dependent returns," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 193(1), pages 23-34, February.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:flsman:v:28:y:2016:i:4:d:10.1007_s10696-016-9236-8. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.