Integrated projects planning in IS departments: A multi‐period multi‐project selection and assignment approach with a computerized implementation

This paper highlights the subject of integrated projects planning (IPP) in contemporary IS departments, and presents a multi‐period, multi‐project selection and assignment approach (MPPA) to assist the departments in handling continuous project‐based IS requests. The MPPA features a model to optimize the selection and assignment of IS projects. In the scope of multi‐project, multi‐period planning, the model innovatively considers the losses due to (1) the accumulated postponement of a previously unselected IS request and (2) the expected delay of ongoing projects when inserting a new project request. The MPPA also features an event‐based decisional process for cumulative selection and assignment on a multi‐period basis. Due to the complex and contextual nature of data in this paper, a computerized system is implemented for aiding the execution of the model and the process. The paper reports on an industrial case for a demonstration of the proposed work. Finally the paper compares the MPPA with related work to summarize the value and role it may play in the IPP context.