Performance of Heuristic Priority Rule for Multiskilled Resource-Constrained Scheduling

Nowadays, without a classification system that helps the project manager to decide which heuristic applies when mitigating the multiskilled resource-constrainedscheduling, they must try several of rules until they find one that compares favorably (shortest duration) with the results of the other heuristic priority rules. This study explored the twenty-three existing heuristics' performance for multiskilled resource-constrained scheduling. The results found that the heuristics with good performance are TIMROS, TIMRES, ACROS, WCS ACS and ACTRES. Overall, they outperform the others in shortening the project duration. It should be pointed out that the heuristics dealing with the use of several information are likely better to get shorter project duration. There are enough statistical evidences to conclude that their criterions have a significant effect on reducing project duration by approximately 1-2 times of the standard deviation. The top four heuristics: TIMROS, TIMRES, ACROS and ACTRESS classified into the composite rule produced the lowest average of project duration. It is also found that Serial Schedule Scheme (SSS) underperformthe Partial Schedule Scheme (PSS). This study has the contribution for the project managers to decide which heuristic applies when mitigating the multiskilled resource overallocation problem in term of minimum project duration