Simulation-based multiple project management in engineering design

In this paper a person-centered, actor-driven project simulation approach is presented that can cope with highly parallel tasks in multiple projects and can, therefore, help managers to plan concurrent product development projects. The task execution sequence is determined by means of a bounded rational choice model accounting for the urgency of tasks. The model creates realistic project dynamics using only a small number of input parameters. The project manager is, for instance, not forced to specify fixed predecessor-successor-relations of tasks. The model was validated with historical project data from a company of the German electronics industry. Using Student's t-tests the simulated project durations showed no significant derivation from the historical duration.