Augmenting priority rule heuristics with justification and rollout to solve the resource-constrained project scheduling problem

The key question addressed by the resource-constrained project scheduling problem (RCPSP) is to determine the start times for each activity such that precedence and resource constraints are satisfied while achieving some objective. Priority rule-based heuristics are widely used for large problems. Rollout and justification can be integrated with priority rule heuristics to solve the RCPSP. We develop several such procedures and examine the resulting solution quality and computational cost. We present empirical evidence that these procedures are competitive with the best solution procedures described in the literature. (C) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.