Project structure

An important factor in design planning?

Conference paper (2007)

Authors

Tomas Flanagan EDC Cambridge
Claudia Eckert EDC Cambridge
P.J. Clarkson EDC Cambridge
Affiliation
External organisation
Risk management Design connectivity Design process improvement Planning and scheduling Process structure
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Published Date

2007

Language

English

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Affiliation

External organisation

Abstract

Planning large-scale design projects is difficult due to a combination of structural variations in terms of task-connectivity patters and uncertainties concerning task durations, rework behaviour, requirements changes and resource availability. This paper uses generated, hypothetical models to explore how variations in design project structure - in terms of rework cycle duration and task connectivity level - are likely to impact plannability, and evaluates the findings against those for models of real industrial projects. Results show how the size and number of iteration loops impact the number of alternative task configurations that must be considered during planning. They also show that increasing connectivity between tasks is likely to adversely affect project schedules, particularly in the context of high-rework levels. In line with these and other insights obtained from the simulation analyses, heuristics for design planning are proposed.