Priority rules in project scheduling: a case for random activity selection

A heuristic based on random activity selection for finding an optimum solution for resources-constrained problems in project scheduling is discussed. Because the comparative studies conducted so far to find which priority rule gives the best results in all situations have been very inconclusive, this study has proved the superiority of random activity selection over other heuristics. Considering the fact that this priority rule is found to be inferior in other studies, an extensive literature review is undertaken with a view to ascertaining these findings as related to the present study. A confirmation of this fact is made using an old problem of general application in which other heuristics failed to produce the optimum solution. Another problem is also used for comparative analysis ro further confirm the findings.