Resource conflicts

Developed by Thordis R. Ragnarsdottir

Relevance of Project Scheduling / Resource Conflicts

Broader context of the problem for example:

• Importance of efficient project scheduling
• The challenges of resource allocation
• Performance Criteria (Potential reference: Herroelen et al., 1996)
• The trade-offs between project completion time, resource utilization, and cost

Potential Reference (Chapter 1): (Demeulemeester & Herroelen, 2006)

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The allocation of limited resources over a period of time is the primary focus of scheduling and sequencing in project management. Scheduling pertains to the determination of when specific activities should take place, while sequencing deals with the arrangement of these activities in a particular order. Research on how to optimally allocate scarce resources over time has been a significant area of interest since the inception of operations research in the mid-1950s (Herroelen et al., 1996).

The effective and accurate management of extensive projects is purported to result in successful project implementation, increased revenues, and reduced costs and lost profits. Scheduling is therefore, a crucial responsibility of project management, but it has become increasingly challenging due to resource limitations and the need to account for precedence relationships. As a result, project scheduling is a widely recognized and fundamental issue that researchers have extensively studied from different angles. The development of standard solutions for this issue has been a major focus in the field of project management.

Resource-constrained project scheduling problem (RCPSP)

• Discuss various project scheduling techniques, such as Gantt charts, Critical Path Method (CPM), and Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT)
• Explain how each technique works and its advantages and disadvantages

--- The problem of project scheduling involves determining the time required to complete a project's activities to achieve a specific objective. Early research on project scheduling focused on describing activities solely in terms of their duration, leading to the development of methods like the critical path method (CPM) and program evaluation and review technique (PERT), which account for precedence relationships between activities. However, treating precedence relationships as independent is an unrealistic assumption, prompting the introduction of constraints to better model their impact. One notable constraint is resource availability, which is a pervasive issue in project scheduling and is commonly referred to as the Resource-Constrained Project Scheduling Problem (RCPSP).