| Abstract: | When an activity can be performed with different techniques, the activity cost function may be a discontinuous piecewise linear or piecewise convex function of the activity's duration. This makes the determination of the minimum cost schedule satisfying a specified project deadline a nonconvex problem. However, if an activity may be performed using a combination of the different techniques, the concept of a convex hull can be used to transform the activity's cost function. The resulting convex problem can be solved by the existing PERT procedures. Therefore, this paper extends the applicability of existing PERT procedures to problems with discontinuous piecewise linear or piecewise convex activity cost functions. |
|---|