An empirical perspective on activity durations for project management simulation studies
Colin, Jeroen Vanhoucke, Mario
Colin, Jeroen
Vanhoucke, Mario
Citations
Altmetric:
Publication Type
Journal article with impact factor
Editor
Supervisor
Publication Year
2016
Journal
Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Book
Publication Volume
142
Publication Issue
1
Publication Begin page
1
Publication End page
13
Publication NUmber of pages
Collections
Abstract
Simulation has played an important role in project-management studies of the last decades, but in order for them to produce practical results, a realistic distribution model for activity durations is indispensable. The construction industry often has needed historical records of project executions, to serve as inputs to the distribution models, but a clearly outlined calibration procedure is not always readily available, nor are their results readily interpretable. This study seeks to illustrate how data from the construction industry can be used to derive realistic input distributions. Therefore, the Parkinson simulation model with a lognormal core is applied to a large empirical dataset from the literature and the results are described. From a discussion of these results, an empirical classification of project executions is presented. Three possible uses are presented for the calibration procedure and the classification in project management simulation studies. These were validated using a case study of a construction company.
Research Projects
Organizational Units
Journal Issue
Keywords
Empirical Equations, Case Studies, Classification, Validation, Construction Companies, Project Management, Construction Industry, Calibration, Simulation Models