Heuristics for project expedition

A prototype system which allows a project network to be portrayed graphically as a CPA network on a high-resolution workstation. Initially, the project network is described, the system calculates the natural completion date of the project from standard CPA calculations. The user is then able to specify a target completion date. An algorithm then examines the network to identify all the activities which, if expedited, could reduce the project duration, these are the initial set of activities to consider for expedition. A knowledge based system then postulates an expedition strategy for each of these activities, this is performed by a detailed analysis of much project data. From each selected strategy the knowledge based system goes on to estimate the resultant time-cost trade-off function. It is from this point that a heuristic algorithm can be invoked, the degree of influence of the various heuristics can be set beforehand