scholarly journals An Improved Differential Evolution Solution for Software Project Scheduling Problem

2015 ◽  
Vol 2015 ◽  
pp. 1-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. C. Biju ◽  
T. Aruldoss Albert Victoire ◽  
Kumaresan Mohanasundaram

This paper proposes a differential evolution (DE) method for the software project scheduling problem (SPSP). The interest on finding a more efficient solution technique for SPSP is always a topic of interest due to the fact of ever growing challenges faced by the software industry. The curse of dimensionality is introduced in the scheduling problem by ever increasing software assignments and the number of staff who handles it. Thus the SPSP is a class of NP-hard problem, which requires a rigorous solution procedure which guarantees a reasonably better solution. Differential evolution is a direct search stochastic optimization technique that is fairly fast and reasonably robust. It is also capable of handling nondifferentiable, nonlinear, and multimodal objective functions like SPSP. This paper proposes a refined DE where a new mutation mechanism is introduced. The superiority of the proposed method is experimented and demonstrated by solving the SPSP on 50 random instances and the results are compared with some of the techniques in the literature.

2018 ◽  
Vol 202 ◽  
pp. 145-161 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miguel Ángel Vega-Velázquez ◽  
Abel García-Nájera ◽  
Humberto Cervantes

2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 ◽  
pp. 1-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruey-Maw Chen ◽  
Frode Eika Sandnes

The multimode resource-constrained project scheduling problem (MRCPSP) has been confirmed to be an NP-hard problem. Particle swarm optimization (PSO) has been efficiently applied to the search for near optimal solutions to various NP-hard problems. MRCPSP involves solving two subproblems: mode assignment and activity priority determination. Hence, two PSOs are applied to each subproblem. A constriction PSO is proposed for the activity priority determination while a discrete PSO is employed for mode assignment. A least total resource usage (LTRU) heuristic and minimum slack (MSLK) heuristic ensure better initial solutions. To ensure a diverse initial collection of solutions and thereby enhancing the PSO efficiency, a best heuristic rate (HR) is suggested. Moreover, a new communication topology with random links is also introduced to prevent slow and premature convergence. To verify the performance of the approach, the MRCPSP benchmarks in PSPLIB were evaluated and the results compared to other state-of-the-art algorithms. The results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm outperforms other algorithms for the MRCPSP problems. Finally, a real-world man-day project scheduling problem (MDPSP)—a MRCPSP problem—was evaluated and the results demonstrate that MDPSP can be solved successfully.


Author(s):  
Michael Völker ◽  
Taiba Zahid ◽  
Thorsten Schmidt

The literature concerning resource constrained project scheduling problems (RCPSP) are mainly based on series or parallel schedule generation schemes with priority sequencing rules to resolve conflicts. Recently, these models have been extended for scheduling multi-modal RCPSP (MMRCPSP) where each activity has multiple possibilities to be performed thus providing decision managers a useful tool for manipulating resources and activities. Nonetheless, this further complicates the scheduling problem inflicted by increase of decision variables. Multiple heuristics have been proposed for this NP-hard problem. The main solution strategy adopted by such heuristics is a two loops decision strategy. Basically the problem is split between two parts where first part is conversion of MMRCPSP to RCPSP (mode fix) while second is finding feasible solution for a resource constrained project and is restricted to single project environments. This research aims on the development of scheduling heuristics, exploring the possibilities of scheduling MMRCPSP with parallel assignment of modes while sequencing the activities. The work addresses Multi-Mode Resource Constrained Multi-Project Scheduling Problem, (MMRCMPSP) by formulating a mathematical model that regards practical requirements of working systems. The algorithm is made intelligent and flexible in order to adopt and shift among various defined heuristic rules under different objectives to function as a decision support tool for managers.


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