Agile-similar Approach in Traditional Project Management - A Generalisation of the Crashing Model

Abstract

In numerous industries such as software development there has been increasing pressure on the supplier to provide early results. In this study we propose a method to adapt traditional project scheduling in order to meet early expectations of the client while limiting costs. First we present the philosophy of the agile methodologies in which meetings with stakeholders play an important role. Therefore it is valuable to take them into account in order to develop new models. Based on it we present a proposal of Linear Programing (LP) model which goal is to minimize the crashing cost and maximize customer satisfaction. In our model we distinguish activities that are rewarded (can increase customer satisfaction) if they are completed before certain meetings. What is more, we assume that project's budget can be modified during meetings. At the end we present an example of using the proposed model.

Non-linear time-cost trade-off models of activity crashing: Application to construction scheduling and project compression with fast-tracking

“…Many of these algorithmic implementations have also allowed for other primary and/or secondary objectives in addition to total project cost minimisation. Among the many alternative, sometimes complementary, objectives, are restraining the maximum total project duration [39], achieving a minimum project quality threshold [40,41], maximising the project net cash-flow [42,43], maximising the client's satisfaction [44], and avoiding resource overallocations [45] and/or idle times [22].…”