Fuzzy Expert System for Determining the Criticality of Activities in Mega Projects

In classic critical path method the criticality of activities are determined by the total floats. However in real world applications the criticalities of activities are also based on their effects on project duration, cost, quality and so on. Activities can have a degree of criticality which can be determined based on different combinations of some affecting variables such as time, risk and resource. After recognizing the impact factors, a fuzzy expert system is developed for determining the level of criticality of activities by using fuzzy inference system (FIS) based on the depository knowledge and experiences of connoisseurs. Behavioral analysis and conditional tests are used to verify the validity of the introduced fuzzy inference system. A construction project is considered as a case study for comparing the results of this method and the classic critical path method (CPM).