Resource-Constrained Project Scheduling for Timely Project Completion with Stochastic Activity Durations

34 Pages Posted: 1 Feb 2008

See all articles by Francisco Ballestin

Francisco Ballestin

University of Navarra - Dpto. de Estadística e Investigación Operativa

R. Leus

Catholic University of Leuven (KUL)

Date Written: July 2007

Abstract

We investigate resource-constrained project scheduling with stochastic activity durations. Various objective functions related to timely project completion are examined, as well as the correlation between these objectives. We develop a GRASP-heuristic to produce high-quality solutions, using so-called descriptive sampling. The algorithm outperforms other existing algorithms for expected-makespan minimization. The distribution of the possible makespan realizations for a given scheduling policy is studied, and problem difficulty is explored as a function of problem parameters.

Keywords: GRASP, Project scheduling, Uncertainty

Suggested Citation

Ballestin, Francisco and Leus, Roel, Resource-Constrained Project Scheduling for Timely Project Completion with Stochastic Activity Durations (July 2007). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1089381 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1089381

Francisco Ballestin (Contact Author)

University of Navarra - Dpto. de Estadística e Investigación Operativa ( email )

Dpto. de Estadística e Investigación Operativa
Campus de Arrosadía
Pamplona, 31006
Spain

Roel Leus

Catholic University of Leuven (KUL) ( email )

Leuven, B-3000
Belgium