An exact algorithm for an integrated project staffing problem with a homogeneous workforce

Abstract

When scheduling projects under resource constraints, assumptions are typically made with respect to the resource availability. In resource scheduling problems important assumptions are made with respect to the resource requirements. As projects are typically labour intensive, the underlying (personnel) resource scheduling problems tend to be complex due to different rules and regulations. In this paper, we aim to integrate these two interrelated scheduling problems to minimise the overall cost. For that purpose, we propose an exact algorithm for the project staffing with resource scheduling constraints. Detailed computational experiments are presented to evaluate different branching rules and pruning strategies and to compare the proposed procedure with other optimisation techniques.