Capability-based Project Scheduling with Genetic Algorithms

Task assignments and scheduling have always been crucial to the software development process, and the quality of those assignments will greatly influence the success of a project. During the software project management process, it is intuitive but often neglected to assign the right people to do the right task. Our earlier models, task-based model and timeline-based model, applied genetic algorithms (GAs) to software project scheduling problems. This paper extends those works by proposing a capability-based scheduling framework, in which personnel/team capability, is simulated. The new model is described along with a new GA that produces optimal or near-optimal schedules. Simulation results show that this new model enhances the ability of GA-based approaches and provides decision support under more realistic conditions.