Project Portfolio Selection Under Skill Development

Abstract

This chapter surveys models for project portfolio selection that incorporate the development of skills by learning and/or forgetting. Basic learning models (starting with Wright's learning curve) are recapitulated and their relations are discussed. Attention is given to simple exponential as well as to S-shaped learning curves or laws derived from inventory-like considerations. Moreover, it is shown how these models have been used by diverse authors as components of approaches to support staffing and scheduling decisions. Then, the integration of learning and forgetting within models for project selection is described in more detail by providing mathematical programming formulations, discussing approximations, and outlining numerical solution techniques. Also analytical results on optimal project portfolio selection over time are recalled. The survey discusses both, models where skill development goals are formulated as objectives, and models where they are used as constraints. Multi-objective formulations and corresponding solution techniques are outlined as well. Skill-based project selection under uncertainty is identified as a major open issue for future research. Keywords IntroductionIt is well-recognized that project selection is one of the most crucial tasks in project management, especially in a multi-project context. The job of conducting a set of projects in a best-possible way concerns the "how" of project management, but it does not yet address the "what" question. As it is rarely the case that a company or institution does not have any influence on which projects to carry out, a suitable choice of a set of projects, a so-called project portfolio, constitutes a substantial managerial decision (cf. also Chap. 33 in this book).

Project portfolio management considering the commitment of agents: A bi-objective model applied to administrative services

“…c) Portfolio assignment problems in which DMs need to decide not only which projects will be implemented, but also who will be assigned to their implementation. This line of research proposes multicriteria decision support system models based on competence-driven project portfolio selection, scheduling and staffing (Chen et al, 2017(Chen et al, , 2020Gutjahr, 2015;Gutjahr et al, 2008Gutjahr et al, , 2010Gutjahr & Froeschl, 2013;Stummer et al, 2009;Xu et al, 2017;Zaraket et al, 2014). d) Models for project portfolio selection and scheduling with multiple time periods, allowing project to be interrupted (Tian et al, 2016), time profile factors and other constraints (Li et al, 2015(Li et al, , 2016RezaHoseini et al, 2020).…”

“…Some of the works on staffing and scheduling allow modelling the skills improvement by carrying out some tasks, as well as the skills deterioration when staff are idle (a recent example is Chen et al, 2020). The work of Gutjahr and coauthors (Gutjahr et al, 2008(Gutjahr et al, , 2010(Gutjahr et al, , 2015 is closer to portfolio management since it considers as well the selection of which projects will be implemented. In those works, skills increase linearly with time working on related tasks, and decay while idle.…”