Optimising Hidden Stochastic PERT Networks

Abstract

This paper introduces a technique for minimising subtask dispersion in hidden stochastic PERT networks. The technique improves on existing research in two ways. Firstly, it enables subtask dispersion reduction in DAG structures, whereas previous techniques have only been applicable to single-layer split-merge or fork-join systems. Secondly, the exact distributions of subtask processing times do not need to be known, so long as there is some means of generating samples. The technique is further extended to use a metric which trades off subtask dispersion and task response time.