Heuristic performance and network/resource characteristics in resource-constrained project scheduling

The problem considered in this study is that of non-pre-emptive scheduling of the activities in a project network to minimize project duration under limited resource availabilities. Various heuristic rules and optimization techniques have been applied to this problem, and comparisons of their effectiveness have been made in the literature. However, no thorough investigation of the types of network and resource characteristics which play an underlying role in determining heuristic performance and which account for the variability of results has been made previously. In this study, a new heuristic rule which compares favourably with the widely-used heuristic rules is developed, and the influence of network/resource characteristics on the performance of different heuristic rules is investigated.