A comparison of different redundancy based methods to solve the project scheduling problem with probabilistic activivies duration

Abstract

Redundancy based methods are proactive scheduling methods for solving the Project Scheduling Problem (PSP) with non-deterministic activities duration. The fundamental strategy of these methods is to estimate the activities duration by adding extra time to the original duration. The extra time allows to consider the risks that may affect the activities durations and to reduce the number of adjustments to the baseline generated for the project. In this article, four methods based on redundancies were proposed and compared from two robustness indicators. These indicators were calculated after running a simulation process. On the other hand, linear programming was applied as the solution technique to generate the baselines of 480 projects analyzed. Finally, the results obtained allowed to identify the most adequate method to solve the PSP with probabilistic activity duration and generate robust baselines.