A Fuzzy Multi-objective Mathematical Programming Model for Project Management Decisions Considering Quality and Contractual Reward and Penalty Costs in a Project Network

Project management is a process that schemes and controls the project life cycle via the easiest and the best way to achieve project goals. Project managers always aim to simultaneously handle conflicting goals in the organization. In this paper, a new mathematical model is proposed that simultaneously minimizes total cost and completion time and maximizes the quality in the project management decision problem. Contractual penalty cost and contractual reward cost with a new method are the other consideration in the proposed model. In the projects, the relation between time and direct cost is a nonlinear function. Hence, a linearization technique is presented with attention to variable change and piecewise linearization, in which nonlinear function is converted to the linear programming model. On the other hand, in real conditions according to uncertainty in environmental situations and incomplete information, there can be ambiguity in parameters and variables of the problem. The uncertainty of the parameters and variables is expressed with fuzzy sets theory and fuzzy mathematical programming. The other aim of this paper is to introduce a modified version of fully fuzzy multi-objective linear programming for the problem. For analyzing a fully fuzzy time-cost-quality project management model, a practical example of the literature is provided. By examining the results of the model with conflicting objectives, two scenarios are presented to explore the interactions of conflicting objectives on the project, and the results are reported.

Automated summary

In this paper, a new mathematical model is proposed to handle conflicting project management objectives by simultaneously minimizing total cost and completion time while maximizing quality. Linearization techniques are used to convert nonlinear relationships between time and direct cost into a linear programming model. Fuzzy sets theory and fuzzy mathematical programming are employed to address uncertainty in parameters and variables. The modified version of fully fuzzy multi-objective linear programming is introduced to analyze a fully fuzzy time-cost-quality project management model with a practical example provided for illustration.