Resource allocation problem in project management

Abstract

Resource allocation problems in project management are notoriously complex. Therefore the development of efficient algorithms for solving various specific cases is a real problem. This paper shows a specific case of the problem, where a program has a particular structure. The resource allocation problem in such a program is reduced to classical Johnson’s problem or job-shop scheduling problem. Effective solution methods, by way of reducing to maximum flow problems, are suggested for some types of resources. For other cases, heuristic rules are developed, with a description of the situations in which these rules allow good enough solutions to be obtained.