Disruption-Driven Resource Rescheduling in Software Development Processes

Real world systems can be thought of as structures of activities that require resources in order to execute. Careful allocation of resources can improve system performance by enabling more efficient use of resources. Resource allocation decisions can be facilitated when process flow and estimates of time and resource requirements are statically determinable. But this information is difficult to be sure of in disruption prone systems, where unexpected events can necessitate process changes and make it difficult or impossible to be sure of time and resource requirements. This paper approaches the problems posed by such disruptions by using a Time Window based INcremental resource Scheduling method (TWINS). We show how to use TWINS to respond to disruptions by doing reactive rescheduling over a relatively small set of activities. This approach uses a genetic algorithm. It is evaluated by using it to schedule resources dynamically during the simulation of some example software development processes. Results indicate that this dynamic approach produces good results obtained at affordable costs.