New conceptsforactivityfloatinresource-constrainedprojectmanagement

The conceptsoffloatandcriticalpatharecentraltoanalyzingactivitynetworksinprojectmanagement.In resource-constrainedprojects,schedulemultiplicitymakesitdifficulttocalculatefloatandidentifycritical activities accurately.Inthiswork,newconcepts offloatandcriticalactivityaredevelopedtoascertaincritical activities morepreciselywithoutreferencetoactivity startandendtimesinspecificschedules.Thenotionsof float, groupfloat,floatset,negativefloatandzerocritical activityareintroduced,whichtheprojectmanager can usetodealmoreeffectivelywithcriticalactivities,durationuncertainty,activitybuffering,andresource allocationthanthecurrentlyavailabletoolsinliterature. Forpracticalimplementation,algorithmsare provided andtestedtocalculatethenewmeasuresonthePSPLIBbenchmarkinstances,specificallytheJ30, J60andJ120testsets,fortheresourceconstrainedprojectmanagement,illustratingtheeffectivenessofthe proposedconceptsinhelpingtoidentifyflexibilityinschedulingactivities.