A Combinatorial Optimization Solution for Activity Prioritizing Problem

Abstract

This paper discusses a special situation in project management in which an analyst wants to prioritize several independent activities to handle all them one after another, in such a way that there are no precedence relationships over the activities. As a novel idea, in this research, the notion is that the structure of prioritized activities is a linear arrangement, and therefore it can be taken into account as a combinatorial optimization problem. The paper formulates a mathematical model, and employes it in two real cases from oil and gas industry. In addition, the paper develops a row generation procedure to solve large scale problems, and reports the computational results for the problem instances of size up to 300 activities. The results demonstrate the applicability and efficiency of the proposed methodology.