José Alberto Araúzo

Simulating the dynamic scheduling of project portfolios

Abstract A main challenge in project management is to provide methodologies that facilitate coordination among the projects in a portfolio or in a firm. Each incoming project in an existing portfolio affects its schedule, the resources availability and the planned performance. There are no analytical solutions for the problem of dynamic scheduling of resources for multiple projects in real time. Mathematical approaches, like integer programming or network based techniques, cannot describe the complexity of real problems (multi-projects environments have many interrelated elements), and have difficulties to adapt the analysis to dynamic changes. We propose a multi-agent system, where projects negotiate the procurement of resources through an auction mechanism all over the portfolio life. Both, projects and resources are modelled as agents. Projects demand resources for fulfilling their scheduled planned work, whereas resources offer their capabilities and workforce. This framework allows project portfolio management and the assessment in the decision of acceptance/rejection new projects.

GESTIÓN EFICIENTE DE CARTERAS DE PROYECTOS. PROPUESTA DE UN SISTEMA INTELIGENTE DE SOPORTE A LA DECISIÓN PARA OFICINAS TÉCNICAS Y EMPRESAS CONSULTORAS

In this paper, we show how an approach inspired on allocation procedures used in financial markets allows an efficient resource assignment in multi-project environments. This novel approach can give support to engineering and consultancy companies, with their project portfolio planning and scheduling in dynamicenvironments. Project portfolio and resources availability change over time because of changes in the firm’s strategy, because of individual project overruns or simply, as a result of environmental changes. Therefore, resources need to be re-allocated dynamically. In our methodology, projects and resources play the role of economic agents. Projects are defined by means of tasks to be performed according to precedence relations. Resources are endowed with some skills and competences (knowledge, labour time, etc.) which are necessary to perform the tasks. Projects ask for resources and resources offer their capabilities depending on their time availability. An “auction” takes place and the price of resources in a particular time-slot reflects the relation between availability and demand of resource capabilities. We describe an example to show how the methodology works. A pilot model can be used in Technical Engineering Offices in order to support portfolio scheduling decisions.

Agent Based Modelling and Simulation of an Auction Market for Airport Slots Allocation.

Airport slot allocation is a combinatorial allocation problem involving different complex and autonomous systems. Nowadays, airport slots are allocated in a two-stage process: primary allocation is performed according to a set of administrative rules and for each airport independently, while secondary allocation is based on trading mechanisms. Several studies have raised inefficiencies in these processes. To enhance the airport slot allocation process we use an auction-based market. More specifically, we present an airport slot allocation mechanism based on a price-setting auction that has been implemented and evaluated by means of Agent-Based Modelling (ABM) and simulation techniques. The solutions obtained using our approach are compared and assessed with the ones obtained using linear programing, showing that market mechanisms can be an efficient alternative to the current administrative procedure.

System of systems engineering for the airport slot allocation problem

Airport slot allocation is a combinatorial allocation problem (CAP) involving different complex and autonomous systems. Nowadays, the slots are allocated in a two-stage process: primary allocation is performed according to a set of administrative rules and for each airport independently, while secondary allocation is based on trading mechanisms. Several studies have raised inefficiencies in these processes. To enhance the airport slot allocation, this work proposes the study of the problem from a System of Systems Engineering approach (SoSE), both for the primary and secondary scenarios. Through the application of Auction Engineering and Experimental Economics, a set of market mechanisms is proposed to engineer these SoS. This paper presents their high-level formalisation, that will be implemented in future works and assessed according to a set of pre-established key performance indicators.

Applications of the Lagrangian Relaxation Method to Operations Scheduling

Lagrangian Relaxation is a combinatorial optimization method which is mainly used as decomposition method. A complex problem can be divided into smaller and easier problems. Lagrangian Relaxation method has been applied to solve scheduling problems in diverse manufacturing environments such as single machine, parallel machine, flow shop, job shop or even in complex real-world environments. We highlight the two key issues on the application of the method: the first one is the resolution of the dual problem and the second one is the choice which constraints should be relaxed. We present the main characteristics of these approaches and survey the existing works in this area.

An Agent Based Information System for Project Portfolio Management

With the increase in globalization, integration of world markets, and rise in the concept of transnational corporations, the importance of project management has increased many folds. An efficient project management helps new enterprises to achieve competitiveness, speed of response, and closeness to customer demands by improving their flexibility and agility, while maintaining their productivity and quality. But for project management to be successful in the new competitive and dynamic environment management, systems should incorporate new characteristics. In these circumstances, the current challenge is to develop information and control systems for project management that exhibit intelligence, robustness and adaptation to the environment changes and disturbances. The introduction of multi-agent systems paradigms addresses these requirements, bringing the advantages of distribution, autonomy, scalability and re-usability. This paper proposes a distributed information and control system for project portfolio management that integrates strategic issues, planning and control into a community of software agents.

Online Scheduling in Multi-project Environments: A Multi-agent Approach

In this paper, we propose a multi-agent system and an auction inspired mechanism for online scheduling in multi-project environments. Agents are resources and projects. Projects demand resources for fulfilling their scheduled planned work, whereas resources offer their capabilities and workforce. An auction inspired mechanism is used to allocate resources to projects; and the price of resources emerges and changes over time depending on supply and demand levels in each time slot. By means of this multi-agent system, we are able to overcome most of the problems faced in multi-project scheduling as changes in resources capabilities, allocation flexibility, changes in project strategic importance, etc.