TEAKS: simulation of human performance at work to support team configuration

The management of a complex engineering project is a difficult task that initially involves the division of the project into tasks; the selection of the right people; and the correct allocation of those tasks for the selected people. Team configuration process is typically performed by a manager based on his/her past experience and the available (though frequently scarce, uncertain and dynamic) information about the cognitive, personal and social characteristics of the potential team members. To support this decision-making process we propose TEAKS, a knowledge-based tool that given an initial team configuration and a set of tasks, simulates the most possible team performance. Its formal bases are Fuzzy Set Theory and Fuzzy Logic and it is implemented using Multi-Agent Systems technology in Java, JADE, JESS and FuzzyJESS. This tool was validated with an industrial project involving 23 team members and 23 tasks (ranging from task assignment to SAP administration, SQL programming and equipment connectivity).