Virtual Relationships for Project Schedule Scenario Analysis
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional project management tools face challenges in efficiently recalculating detailed schedules of large or complex projects with interdependencies, as changing constraints require recalculating thousands of activities, which is computationally intensive and time-consuming, especially when adjustments need to bring projects back into schedule and budget compliance.
Innovation Solution
A system and method that generates virtual relationships between projects using a logic relationship analyzer, virtual offset calculator, and scenario analyzer, allowing for optimized calculation approaches to quickly evaluate the impact of changing constraints without full recalculation of detailed schedules, using virtual relationships to ensure accurate alternate scenario planning.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If detailed schedules with thousands of activities and relationships are fully recalculated when constraints change, then schedule accuracy and compliance are maintained, but computation time and processing resources increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the project schedule into summary level (parent projects/tasks) and detailed level (individual activities). Virtual relationships are created at the summary level to represent aggregated dependencies, allowing constraint changes to be evaluated without recalculating all detailed activities. This segmentation enables rapid scenario analysis at the parent level while maintaining the option to drill down to detailed levels only when necessary.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates virtual relationships that are simplified representations or copies of the actual detailed relationships. These virtual relationships capture the essential dependency patterns and resource constraints at the summary level, enabling fast evaluation of constraint changes without requiring access to or recalculation of the full detailed schedule with thousands of individual activity relationships.
2Reliability
If multiple strategic modifications are made to bring a project back into compliance, then schedule and budget compliance are improved, but the number of recalculations required increases exponentially
Solution Approach 1:
By segmenting the evaluation process into summary level virtual relationship assessment and detailed level recalculation, the system can evaluate multiple strategic modification scenarios rapidly at the summary level. Only the most promising scenarios that maintain compliance requirements proceed to detailed recalculation, dramatically reducing the total number of full recalculations needed.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent performs preliminary evaluation of constraint changes and strategic modifications using virtual relationships at the summary level before committing to full detailed recalculation. This preliminary action identifies viable compliance paths and filters out non-viable options, ensuring that detailed recalculation resources are applied only to scenarios with high probability of achieving compliance.
3Speed
If virtual relationships are used to represent aggregated project relationships, then scenario evaluation speed increases, but relationship detail and precision may be reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a dynamic evaluation approach where the level of detail is adjusted based on the evaluation stage. Virtual relationships provide aggregated views for rapid scenario screening at the summary level. When a scenario progresses to detailed evaluation or implementation, the system dynamically accesses the underlying detailed activity relationships to maintain precision. This dynamic switching between aggregated and detailed representations optimizes both speed and precision depending on the evaluation context.
Data Source
AI summary
A project portfolio management system creating virtual interrelationships between projects. Aspects of the system include creating virtual relationships at the Work Breakdown Structure (“WBS”) level with appropriate offsets using interpretations of logic relationships in detailed project schedules using various calculation approaches. The system models the linkages between detailed project schedules in a virtual relationship usable in alternate scenario planning analysis at a summary or working level. The virtual relationships are accurate enough for high level planning by users (e.g., program managers and analysts) with limited familiarity of project details (e.g., which non-workdays are in which project calendars) and reduce the computation times when altering a project planning scenario. Using the virtual relationships allows scenarios to be quickly evaluated to gauge the effects of changing constraints before committing to recalculating the detailed schedules of a project.