An application of data envelopment analysis in project planning techniques

Project Managers in the Information Technology consulting business are constrained by the project environments in which they work. They are expected to manage projects to successful completion, generally defined to be on time and within budget. The primary constraints placed upon the Project Manager include limited resources, fixed budgets, firm finish dates and severe penalties for missing the key project performance criteria. A major responsibility of the Project Manager is to plan for the successful completion of the work to be performed. In this research we develop a decision method, which enables the Project Manager to choose between competing project planning tools.; The three competing planning techniques available are no formal planning, Critical Path Method (CPM) or Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT). By way of heuristic we establish guidelines where no formal planning is acceptable and then construct a process to determine when the Project Manager should plan with the one of the other two techniques. The decision process established in this research is based upon choosing the planning technique which is expected to be the most efficient in predicting the actual project duration and cost. This is completed through the use of Data Envelopment Analysis to calculate the efficiency of each technique for a given set of projects.; This research defines and calculates a project complexity index value for any given project from the preliminary list of tasks contemplated in the planning process and the number of different locations where the project will be completed. Computationally, the model derives specific values for project complexity index that map to a clear decision to use CPM or PERT. This research thus ensures that the Project Manager is creating the project plan, duration and cost estimates with the technique that is most efficient given the parameters of the project.