Time Estimation for Project Management Life Cycle: A Simulation Approach

Summary The Project Life Cycle refers to a logical sequence of activities to accomplish the project’s goals or objectives. Regardless of scope or complexity, any project goes through a series of stages during its life. Project development has increased importance in business due to stiff competition and a fast changing business environment. Its cycle time is critical as it decides the success of a business. If the project is late to market by four months in a life cycle of five years, it loses one third of its profit. Keeping in view an attempt has been made to design a simulator for time estimation of project management process using Erlang-4 distribution. The input for the simulator has been derived by using an algorithm for generating pseudo random numbers which follows Erlang-4 distribution. This simulator will be an asset to affordably keep track of the time of phases during the process of project management.