Computer-Aided Project Management: A Visual Scheduling and Management System

This work presents a new efficient and effective method for the control and allocation of resources employed in the creation of a product. While most of the examples in the text refer to manufacturing of buildings, the method is general, applicable to the generation of even non-physical products such as research projects. The superiority of the Pollalis system over traditional analytical Operations Research and Program Scheduling, in offering an easier comprehensive view of the process and in coping flexibly with qualitative data, results from the choice of representation for the specific problem of reasoning about actions. Visual descriptions of the system require less prerequisites to be comprehended and "cost" less effort to be used. Front Matter ....Pages i-4 Introduction (Spiro N. Pollalis)....Pages 5-10 Front Matter ....Pages 11-11 Quantified Bars (Spiro N. Pollalis)....Pages 13-28 Quantified Bar Charts (Spiro N. Pollalis)....Pages 29-57 Templates (Spiro N. Pollalis)....Pages 59-73 The Matrix-Balanced Chart (Spiro N. Pollalis)....Pages 75-99 Hierarchical Representation (Spiro N. Pollalis)....Pages 101-122 Front Matter ....Pages 123-123 State-of-Practice Representations for Scheduling (Spiro N. Pollalis)....Pages 125-140 Comparison of the VSMS to the State-of-Practice Representations (Spiro N. Pollalis)....Pages 141-157 Front Matter ....Pages 159-159 Scheduling the Construction of a Hotel (Spiro N. Pollalis)....Pages 161-191 The Renovation of a Building Interior (Spiro N. Pollalis)....Pages 193-227 Back Matter ....Pages 229-242