Data Analysis and Visualization in the Tasks of the Project Solutions Multicriteria Optimization

Abstract

The accumulation of data on project management processes and standard solutions has made relevant research related to the use of knowledge engineering methods for a multi-criteria search for options that set optimal settings for project environment parameters. Purpose: Development of a method for searching and visualizing groups of projects that can be evaluated based on the concept of dominance and interpreted in terms of project variables and performance indicators. Methods: The enrichment of the sample while maintaining an implicit link between the project variables and performance indicators is carried out using a predictive neural network model. A set of genetic algorithms is used to detect the Pareto front in the multidimensional criterion space. The ontology of projects is determined after clustering options in the solution space and transforming the cluster structure into the criterion space. Automation of the search in the multidimensional space of the Pareto front greatest curvature zone, which determines the equilibrium design solutions, their visualization and interpretation are carried out using a tree map. Results: A tree map is constructed at any dimension of the criterion space and has a structure that has a topological correspondence with projections of shared cluster images from a multidimensional space onto a plane. For various types of transformations and correlations between performance indicators and project variables, it is shown that the areas of the Pareto front greatest curvature are determined either by the contents of the whole cluster or by part of the variants representing the "best" cluster. If an undivided rectangle of a cluster is adjacent to the upper right corner of a tree map, then its representatives in the criterion space are well separated from the rest of the clusters and, when maximizing performance indicators, are closest to the ideal point. All representatives of such a cluster are effective solutions. If the winning cluster contains dominant options inside the decision tree, then the ”best" cluster is represented by the remaining options that set the optimal settings for the project variables. Practical relevance: The proposed methods of searching and visualizing groups of projects can be used when choosing the conditions of resource and organizational and economic modeling of the project environment, ensuring the optimization of risks, cost, functional, and time criteria.