Advanced Models for Project Management / Edition 1

by L. Valadares Tavares

Overview

More than forty years have passed since the early attempts to model projects. A large domain of theoretical developments has grown producing a high number of analytical and numerical results, but it seems that the main model is still the same: the concept of project network. This concept has come to represent the two major features underlying the notion of a project: the sequential and the competitive nature of its components, the project's activities. Actually, the sequential property defines the structure of the project and the competitive nature stems from the use of common resources (facilities, goods, equipment, management, etc.) to carry out the different activities. However, significant advances have been achieved in project modelling, allowing the production of much more powerful results: A. the concept of precedence and the description of activities has been generalized to produce a wide range of realistic representation of projects. B. the shastic study of the features of projects such as the duration and cost of their activities is carried out by several analytical and numerical models, allowing experimental and forecasting analyses. C. the allocation of resources can be now studied for more complex situations and restrictions. D. the financial description of projects is more accurately studied and its optimization is thoroughly pursued. E. the assessment and the evaluation of projects now can be studied within the framework of multicriteria decision theory considering multiple perspectives and supporting the project manager to select the most appropriate compromises between risk, time and expected gains.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780792382225
Publisher:	Springer US
Publication date:	10/31/1998
Series:	International Series in Operations Research & Management Science , #16
Edition description:	1999
Pages:	309
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.36(d)

About the Author

Luis Valadares Tavares is Professor of Operational Research and Systems Engineering at IST - Technical University of Lisbon, Portugal, as well as President of IST's Center for Urban and Regional Systems and of the Portuguese eBusiness Society.

Table of Contents

1. A Systemic Introduction to Project Management.- 1. Projects and organizations.- 2. Project management and model building.- 3. The general systemic model.- 4. The systemic model of project management.- 2. Basic Models for Project Management.- 1. Project networking.- 2. Sequentiality.- 3. Resources.- 4. Duration.- 5. Optimal scheduling.- 3. Structural Modelling of Projects Networks.- 1. Hardness and complexity.- 2. Modular decomposition.- 3. Network reduction.- 4. Hierarchical levels.- 5. Level adjacency matrix.- 4. Morphology and Simulation of Project Networks.- 1. Morphology.- 2. The generation method.- 3. Comparative analysis.- 4. A test set of generated networks.- 5. Duration of projects.- 1. Modelling.- 2. Experimental results.- 6. Scheduling of Project Networks.- 1. General formulation and typology.- 2. The binary formulation.- 3. The heuristic optimization of the binary model.- 4. The proposed non-linear continuous model.- 5. An application of the proposed model using RISKNET and GAMS-MINOS.- 6. Dynamic Programming.- 7. Risk.- 7. The Assessment and Evaluation of Projects.- 1. Typology.- 2. Financial assessment and evaluation.- 3. Multi-criteria assessment or evaluation.- 4. The MACMODEL.- 8. The Optimal Scheduling of a Project in Terms of Its Duration.- 1. The synthesis of decision variables.- 2. A theorem on the propagation of floats.- 3. The developed shastic model of the project network.- 4. The results.- 5. Conclusions.- Annex 1 — Developed Software.- 1. RISKNET.- 2. MACMODEL.- Annex 2 — Main Notation.- References.

Editorial Reviews

‘It is definitely worthwhile reading for experts in the field and also for researchers with an interest in other applications of graph analysis.'
Interfaces,(2000)

From the Publisher

Treating recent advances in project modeling reflecting snowballing computer power, Tavares (operational research, Technical U. of Lisbon) provides a systematic approach to project management (Part 1) in three dozen chapters. The seven other sections pivot on: basic models, structural modeling of project networks, the morphology and simulation of project networks, duration of projects, scheduling of project networks, the assessment and evaluation of projects, and the optimal scheduling of a project in terms of its duration. Appends notes on RISKNET and MACMODEL software and the main notations used. Replete with graphical representations of schedules, matrices, and the like. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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