Scheduling multi-objective enterprise resource planning implementation projects under human resource constraints and uncertainty

Abstract

Nowadays, there has been an increasing attention to enterprise resource planning (ERP) software implementation projects due to the rapid improvements in information technologies. In this context, project managers may face with several uncertainties during the project planning and scheduling phases. In this paper, scheduling of a multi-objective ERP implementation project is targeted under human resource constraints and uncertainty. Through the proposed interval programming based solution approach, uncertainties of the project parameters/inputs as well as the project schedules/outputs which represent the starting or completion times of the activities can be easily handled. Therefore, several alternative project schedules can be generated by making use of the proposed approach according to the risk appetite of the project managers. Additionally, efficiency and reliability factors of the human resources are also taken into account. Finally, computational results of a real-life application have shown that more applicable and reliable compromise solutions can be generated by the proposed approach considering both project makespan and effective utilization of the human resource capacities.