Behaviour of constrained resource heuristics in project scheduling

Resource management is an important element in project management. This paper examines the potential existence of a mathematical relationship between the performance of heuristics used in scheduling constrained-resource projects and the characteristic features, called summary measures, of such networks. Such a relationship selects a certain heuristic to schedule a single project within the minimum duration of multiple and fixed requirements of constrained resources. One hundred and thirty-five networks were scheduled and tested using six heuristics. These heuristics were investigated for their performance relative to ten selected summary measures, five resource-related measures, four time-related measures, and one-shape measure. All the different stages were programmed using a program written in Turbo-Basic. The program developed performed scheduling and resource allocation using the six heuristics investigated, and calculated the summary measures for every test network. A numerical example is presented. Conclusions are drawn concerning the use and behaviour of these heuristics in project management.