Graduation Year

2004

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree

Ph.D.

Degree Granting Department

Industrial Engineering

Major Professor

Michael X. Weng, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Glen H. Besterfield, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Tapas K. Das, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Alexander Nauda, Ph.D.

Committee Member

William A. Miller, Ph.D.

Keywords

Merge point, Critical path, Task distribution, Task duration, Standard deviation

Abstract

The concurrent development (CD) project is defined as the concurrent development of both hardware and software that is integrated together later for a deliverable product. The CD Scheduling Problem (CDSP) is defined as most CD baseline project schedules being developed today are overly optimistic. That is, they finish late. This study researches those techniques being used today to produce CD project schedules and looks for ways to close the gap between the baseline project schedule and reality. In Chapter 1, the CDSP is introduced. In Chapter 2, a review is made of published works. A review is also made of commercial scheduling software applications to uncover their techniques as well as a review of organizations doing research on improving project scheduling. In Chapter 3, the components of the CDSP are analyzed for ways to improve. In Chapter 4, the overall methodology of the research is discussed to include the development of the Concurrent Development Scheduling Model (CDSM) that quantifies the factors driving optimism. The CDSM is applied to typical CD schedules with the results compared to Monte Carlo simulations of the same schedules. The results from using the CDSM on completed CD projects are also presented. The CDSM does well in predicting the outcome. In Chapter 5, the results of the experiments run to develop the CDSM are given. In Chapter 6 findings and recommendations are given. Specifically, a list of findings is given that a decision maker can use to analyze a baseline project schedule and assess the schedules optimism. These findings will help define the risks in the CD schedule. Also included is a list of actions that the decision maker may be able to take to reduce of the risk of the project to improve the chances of coming in on time.

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