Optimizing Department of Defense Acquisition Development Test and Evaluation scheduling
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Authors
Edwards, Shane A.
Subjects
Optimization
test and evaluation
integer linear programming
cascade
project scheduling
project management
test and evaluation
integer linear programming
cascade
project scheduling
project management
Advisors
Brown, Gerald
Date of Issue
2015-06
Date
Jun-15
Publisher
Monterey, California: Naval Postgraduate School
Language
Abstract
Department of Defense (DOD) Development Test and Evaluation (DT&E) activities for new acquisitions account for a large portion of time and money during the Engineering and Manufacturing Development Phase. DOD Program Management Office test personnel develop test schedules manually using time estimates and heuristic subject matter expert advice for each test to forecast the overall time and costs associated with a developed course of action. These manually constructed schedules take weeks to develop via many planning iterations to construct an acceptable, but not necessarily feasible or optimal solution. Ultimately, these forecast schedules and duration estimates can be inaccurate, and may result in schedule delays and/or cost overruns. This thesis presents an optimization and simulation model as a decision support tool to improve current DT&E scheduling. We represent this resource-constrained scheduling problem as an integer linear program, and develop set enumeration reduction techniques, as well as a cascade method to reduce solve times. The proposed model, unlike current manual scheduling techniques, suggests schedules that are feasible, nearly optimal, and are produced quickly for effective analysis of alternatives.
Type
Thesis
Description
Series/Report No
Department
Operations Research
Operations Research
Organization
Identifiers
NPS Report Number
Sponsors
Funder
Format
Citation
Distribution Statement
Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited.
Rights
This publication is a work of the U.S. Government as defined in Title 17, United States Code, Section 101. Copyright protection is not available for this work in the United States.