A User's Guide to the Computer Implementation of the New Project Scheduling Procedure: Statistical PERT.

Abstract : This report documents a new project scheduling algorithm which is a five step iterative procedure capable of determining a minimum cost project schedule when the activities making up the project have durations which are random variables. The cost of an activity is assumed to be a convex piecewise linear function of the activity's mean duration. The problem is to determine the activity mean durations which both minimize the total project cost and insure that the mean (or some specified percentile) of the corresponding project completion time distribution is less than or equal to a specified project deadline. Information on the trade-off between the project's minimum cost and its specified deadline is also provided. This report is intended as a user's guide to the new project scheduling procedure and its computer implementation. The report includes a description of the project scheduling problem a general overview of the scheduling procedure including references to technical reports documenting the development of the procedure, and an example of the procedure's performance. The documentation of the computer implementation includes specific input instructions; sample input and output; flowcharts; individual program descriptions; technical details concerning temporary data sets, job control language, and program interruption and restart procedures; and program listings.