Scripties (2018)

Onderwerpen masterproeven 2018-2020 aan de onderzoeksgroep “Operations Research and Scheduling”

Mario Vanhoucke (ZAP)
Louis-Philippe Kerkhove (PostDoc)
Jeroen Burgelman (WP)
Annelies Martens (PostDoc)
Tom Servranckx (WP)
Rob Van Eynde (WP)
Jakob Snauwaert (WP)
Wout Vandoorne (WP)
 
Aantal beschikbare onderwerpen: 37
Totaal aantal studenten toegewezen aan een onderwerp: 23
Belangrijke boodschap aan studenten: Voor sommige onderwerpen waar reeds studenten werden toegewezen laten we ook nog andere studenten toe. Indien interesse in een onderwerp dat reeds werd toegewezen, kan je alsnog een mail sturen naar de desbetreffende begeleider. De begeleider laat dan asap weten of het onderwerp nog kan gekozen worden. Uiteraard zijn alle openstaande onderwerpen nog beschikbaar.
 
Enkele belangrijke data: 
  • Indienen summary sheet: uiterlijk 15 february 2019 (richtlijnen beschikbaar bij de begeleider)
  • Indienen titel masterproef: uiterlijk 25 oktober 2018
  • Tussentijds rapport: uiterlijk 10 mei 2019
  • Indienen thesis: uiterlijk 2 juni 2020
Wij zijn op zoek naar gemotiveerde studenten die zich met plezier willen inwerken in het domein van Operationeel Onderzoek/Management. Dit domein wordt in de literatuur en praktijk meestal Operations Research/Management Science genoemd (voor meer informatie, zie www.informs.org). De algemene verwachtingen werden reeds gepresenteerd op de introductiesessie. Je kan deze presentatie downloaden via volgende link: Masterproeven2018.
 
Wij verwachten van de studenten:
 
We verwachten van alle masterproefstudenten dat zij zelfstandig kunnen werken en dat zij een kwantitatieve ingesteldheid hebben. Voor sommige onderwerpen zijn we op zoek naar studenten die graag programmeren en die bereid zijn de basisprincipes van C++ onder de knie te nemen.
  • Inzet en motivatie vanaf begin oktober
  • Samenkomsten op vooraf geregelde tijdstippen om de voortgang en/of resultaten gezamenlijk te bespreken
  • Bij voorkeur opmaak van de masterproef in Latex
  • Aanleren van de basisprincipes van C++ voor de start van het academiejaar (handleiding beschikbaar) (niet alle onderwerpen)
De output bestaat uit een tussentijds thesisverslag in jaar 1 en een finale versie in jaar 2. 
 
Jaar 1. Tussentijds verslag.
Het tussentijds verslag telt mee als deel van de finale evaluatie, en moet dus grondig worden opgemaakt. Download daarom de richtlijnen van het tussentijds verslag en lees deze aandachtig. Om deze richtlijnen wat concreet te maken, hebben we via onderstaande links drie voorbeeldverslagen beschikbaar gesteld:
  • Verslag 1. Zwak verslag, Het verslag bevat geen enkele vernieuwing en is puur een samenstelling van bestaand onderzoek. De onderzoeksvraag is niet afgelijnd en het toekomstig werk werd niet perfect gedefinieerd. 
  • Verslag 2. Matig verslag. Het verslag bevat voldoende materiaal dat kan dienen als overzicht van de thesis, maar mist een grondig overzicht van het reeds gedane werk en bijhorende behaalde resultaten. Bovendien is het verslag niet origineel en vernieuwend. 
  • Verslag 3. Excellent verslag. Het verslag bevat concrete doelstellingen, voldoende vooruitgang en diepgang én een sterke kijk op het toekomstig werk. Schitterende verzorging. 

Jaar 2. Finale thesis: De praktische richtlijnen qua lettertype, vormgeving, etc. voor het finaal thesisverslag kan je op Minerva vinden. De inhoudelijke richtlijnen die wij als OR&S onderzoeksgroep nastreven vind je via de volgende link: finale thesis.

Wij bieden aan de studenten:
  • Een onderwerp dat in de lijn ligt van onze huidige onderzoeksactiviteiten
  • Opvolging van de ontwikkeling van het programma en de analyse van de resultaten
Bij elk onderwerp worden de contactpersoon, vaardigheden, maximaal # studenten en inhoudelijke aspecten kort vermeld. De inhoudelijke aspecten beschrijven kort waar de klemtoon van de masterproef ligt, maar dit kan uiteraard ten alle tijde, volgens de interesse van de student, aangepast worden.
 
Inhoudelijke aspecten zijn:
  • Literatuurstudie: ondersteunend, eventueel uitgebreid, uitgebreid of hoofddoel van de masterproef 
  • Case study/oefening: neen, optioneel of hoofddoel van de masterproef 
  • Software gebruik: neen, optioneel of ja 
  • C++: neen, optioneel of ja (of eventueel een andere taal, bv. Java, VBA in excel, etc.)

 

Masterproeven in project management and control and project portfolio management.

Students are free to propose any other topic related to project management or operations research. Alternatively, they can select one of the challenging topics from the list below.

 
Topic: A case study on project management (planning, risk or control): Empirical data and solutions
 
Not yet assigned
 
The purpose of this thesis is to collect data for projects using a standardized methodology of the OR&S research group. The students has to visit companies and collect the data, and afterwards analyse the data to apply some existing methodologies. The focus can lie on one of the following three themes (or a combination) as described below: - Project planning: Resource-constrained project schedule is a topic that is investigated widely in the literature, and the OR&S group has done a lot of research for this challenging domain. While the majority has been done on artificial data, the master thesis should now extend the existing knowledge to empirical data. - Project risk: Schedule risk analysis requires detailed risk information on the activity level as well as data about external risk factors. The more accurate the data, the more reliable the results of a traditional simulation study. Currently, it is suggested that theoretical simulations should be extended to an approach known as “lognormal core”, but no empirical validation has been made so far. This thesis focuses on data collection and empirical validation of this challenging domain. - Project control: Project control is traditionally done using Earned Value Management (EVM) methodologies. However, in the recent years, it has been shown that (1) numerous extensions are available that extend the EVM methods to more realistic methodologies and (2) theoretical results often deviate from practical and empirical experience. Techniques such as reference class forecasting help in improving these extensions, and should be validated on empirical data. More information about the existing data, as well as the tool to analyse new results, can be found at www.projectmanagement.ugent.be/research/data.
 
Advisor: Mario Vanhoucke 
Contact: Tom Servranckx
Skills: Project Management, Scheduling, Risk analysis, Earned Value Management
Extra: This thesis is suitable for two students. Use of LaTeX is mandatory.
Substantive aspects:
Literature review: supportive
Case study/exercise: yes (main goal of thesis)
Software use: MS Excel, ProTrack
Model/analysis: main goal of thesis
 
Topic: Modelling and planning supplier buyer relationships using project scheduling techniques
 
Nog niet toegewezen
 
In the New Product Development (NPD) literature the advantages of supplier buyer relationships are extensively discussed. These relationships are used in Product Development Projects (PDP) to reduce the project duration and increase the success rate of the project. The student will explore options to model these relationships in a project scheduling context. An academic paper “Analysis of supplier buyer relationships using resource constrained project scheduling strategies“ is available to be used as a point of reference. The student assesses the impact of different priority rules, het number of suppliers and the availability of resources on the project duration.
 
Advisor: Mario Vanhoucke 
Skills: Project Management, Scheduling, Optimisation
Extra: Suitable for 2 students. Use of LaTeX is mandatory.
Substantive aspects:
Literature review: supportive
Case study/exercise: optionally
Software use: RanGen, C++
Model/analysis: main goal of thesis
 
Topic: Planning of modular projects: heuristic solution methods
 
Not yet assigned
 
In the literature on Research and Development project scheduling “modular projects” are frequently used to incorporate possible activity failures during the project planning phase. The goal of the thesis is to develop multiple metaeuristic solution approaches to schedule modular projects. As a basis for the analysis the student can use the academic publication: “a fast greedy heuristic for scheduling modular projects”. The student is expected to compare the performance of the presented algorithms and provide managerial recommendations.
 
Advisor: Mario Vanhoucke 
Skills: Project Planning, metaheuristics
Extra: This thesis is suitable for two students. Use of LaTeX is mandatory.
Substantive aspects:
Literature review: supportive
Case study/exercise: optionally
Software use: RanGen, C++
Model/analysis: main goal of thesis
 
Topic: Planning of multi skilled projects: a matheuristic approach
 
Not yet assigned
 
In the project scheduling literature the multi-skilled nature of resources is often ignored. Recently however, this assumption has been relaxed and the explicit modelling of multi-skilled resources is incorporated in the project planning phase. The goal of this master thesis is to develop a diverse dataset that complements the existing datasets in the multi-skilled project scheduling literature. The student will develop a matheuristic to solve the created problem instances. The academic publication: “Priority-Based Heuristics for the Multi-Skill Resource Constrained Project Scheduling Problem” can be used as a starting point for the analysis.
 
Advisor: Mario Vanhoucke 
Skills: Project Planning, optimisation
Extra: This thesis is suitable for two students. Use of LaTeX is mandatory.
Substantive aspects:
Literature review: supportive
Case study/exercise: optional
Software gebruik: RanGen, C++
Model/analysis: main goal of thesis
 
Topic: Project Planning with flexible resource profiles: A Case Study
 
Not yet assigned
 
In the vast majority of the project scheduling literature resource requirements of activities are assumed to be fixed during the processing of activities. In reality, this requirement usually does not hold. The student is expected to collect company data on projects with flexible resource profiles (at least 5 projects). The Flexible Resource Constrained Project Scheduling Problem (F-RCPSP) will be studied using this real-life data and its practical applications will be tested. The focus is on the project planning phase. The collected data will be analysed by using and comparing existing state-of-art techniques. The academic publication: “MIP models for resource-constrained project scheduling with flexible resource profiles” can be used as a starting point for the analysis.
 
Advisor: Mario Vanhoucke 
Skills: Project Scheduling, Optimisation
Extra: This thesis is suitable for two students. Use of LaTeX is mandatory.
Substantive aspects:
Literature review: supportive
Case study/exercise: Yes
Software use: C++, optionally RanGen
Model/analysis: main goal of thesis
 
Topic: Applications of game theory within project scheduling
 
Not yet assigned
 
Game theory is a branch of applied mathematics concerned with the derivation of stable equilibria if multiple agents with conflicting objectives interact. Game theory is increasngly applied to derive socially optimal equilibria and fair allocation systems. The purpose of this master thesis is twofold. On the one hand a thorough review of existing literature is required, with partial attention for the application of game theory to project scheduling problems. On the other hand, the student is required to apply game theory to a project scheduling problem. The academic publication: “Nash equilibria for the multi-agent project scheduling problem with controllable processing times” can be used as a starting point for the analysis.
 
Advisor: Mario Vanhoucke 
Skills: Project Scheduling, Optimisation, Game Theory
Extra: This thesis is suitable for two students. Use of LaTeX is mandatory.
Substantive aspects:
Literature review: supportive
Case study/exercise: No
Software use: C++, optionally RanGen
Model/analysis: main goal of thesis
 
Topic: A heuristic approach for the project scheduling problem with flexible project structures: hybrid priority rules
 
Not yet assigned
 
The traditional project scheduling problem explicitly assumes that the project structure is uniquely defined and known in advance. In many practical situations, however, there exist multiple alternative ways to execute subparts of the project. The resulting problem is called project scheduling with flexible project structures and consists of two subproblems: a choice must be made amongst the different alternative execution modes of the project and the resulting deterministic project structure should be scheduled. Due to the complexity of the problem, most research papers propose a solution procedure that is based on a two-stage approach. However, such an approach will not yield a global optimisation as both subproblems are solved independently. In this thesis, the student will develop a hybrid priority-rule based heuristic procedure for the proposed scheduling problem. The aim of this thesis is to compare and validate the new hybrid priority rules with best-known priority rules in literature on artificial data.
 
Advisor: Mario Vanhoucke 
Contact: Tom Servranckx
Skills: Project scheduling, Optimisation
Extra: This thesis is suitable for two students.
Substantive aspects:
Literature review: supportive
Case study/exercise: no
Software use: RanGen, C++
Model/analysis: main goal of thesis
 
Topic: Reactive strategies for the project scheduling problem with flexible project structures
 
Not yet assigned
 
In the traditional project scheduling problem, most researchers explicitly assume that the project structure is fixed and known in advance. Due to the rapidly changing business environment, this is neither possible nor desirable in most practical situations. Therefore, project managers consider different alternative ways to execute subparts of the project and construct so-called flexible project structures. Consequently, the resulting scheduling problem consists of two subproblems: an alternative execution mode should be selected for each work package and the resulting project with a fixed structure should be scheduled. However, the initial schedule might become suboptimal and the decisions made in the past could turn out impossible or impractical in case that disruptions occur in the project environment. Therefore, the student will develop reactive strategies that limit the impact of disruptions on the project schedule and compare them for different degrees of allowable decision-making instability.
 
Advisor: Mario Vanhoucke 
Contact: Tom Servranckx
Skills: Project scheduling, Optimisation, Simulation
Extra: This thesis is suitable for two students.
Substantive aspects:
Literature review: supportive
Case study/exercise: optionally
Software use: C++, optionally RanGen
Model/analysis: main goal of thesis
 
Topic: The impact of learning effects on decision-making in project schedules with flexible structures
 
Not yet assigned
 
The traditional project scheduling problem explicitly assumes that the project structure is uniquely defined and known in advance. In many practical situations, however, there exist multiple alternative ways to execute subparts of the project. The resulting problem is called project scheduling with flexible project structures and consists of two subproblems: a choice must be made amongst the different alternative execution modes of the project and the resulting deterministic project structure should be scheduled. Each of these alternatives might be subject to different learning effects that quantify the transition of knowledge within the scope of the project. In this thesis, the student will develop a model to quantify learning effects and propose strategies to capitalise them in different types of projects.
 
Advisor: Mario Vanhoucke 
Contact: Tom Servranckx
Skills: Project scheduling, Optimisation
Extra: This thesis is suitable for two students.
Substantive aspects:
Literature review: supportive
Case study/exercise: optionally
Software use: RanGen, C++
Model/analysis: main goal of thesis
 
Topic: Contract design for projects with different execution alternatives
 
Not yet assigned
 
In most practical situations, project are executed by in-house (i.e. core teams) or outhouse (i.e. consultants) experts in order to deliver a pre-determined outcome given time and budget constraints. Therefore, there is a clear knowledge gap between the project contractor and owner against which the project owner will protect himself through well-considered contract design. Within the scope of the contract, however, the project contractor will have a certain degree of freedom to execute parts of the project in one of multiple alternative ways. The question remains which types of contracts should be designed by project contractors/owners in this situation. In this thesis, the student will design contract strategies from the perspective of the project contractor/owner and monitor the impact on the performance of the project for different project settings.
 
Advisor: Mario Vanhoucke 
Contact: Tom Servranckx
Skills: Project scheduling, Optimisation
Extra: This thesis is suitable for two students.
Substantive aspects:
Literature review: supportive
Case study/exercise: optionally
Software use: RanGen, C++
Model/analysis: main goal of thesis
 
Topic: A case-based approach to measure and evaluate the cost of flexibility
 
Not yet assigned
 
Due to the ever-increasing complexity of the rapidly changing business environment, the project management community has promoted future research on the ability of flexibility to face uncertainty in the project environment. Therefore, some researchers have started to model flexibility in the field of project scheduling. In this way, project schedules are constructed that consists of different alternatives in order to tackle the uncertainty in the project environment in a proactive way. Most studies implicitly assume that the inclusion of more flexibility in the project can be obtained at no additional cost although this is seldom the case in practical situations. In this thesis, the student will collect empirical data to provide a practical approach on how to measure the cost of flexibility. Moreover, the student will apply a heuristic approach to provide managerial insights on the flexibility/cost trade-off in project scheduling.
 
Advisor: Mario Vanhoucke 
Contact: Tom Servranckx
Skills: Project scheduling, Optimisation
Extra: This thesis is suitable for two students.
Substantive aspects:
Literature review: supportive
Case study/exercise: yes
Software use: C++
Model/analysis: main goal of thesis
 
Topic: Robust project scheduling using fuzzy set theory: alternative project parameters
 
Not yet assigned
 
The fuzzy set theory is used in a wide range of research domains to consistently collect and model inaccurate and/or unknown information, also in project scheduling and control where the values of different project parameters are seldom exactly known beforehand. The fuzzy numbers allow project managers to use assessments of experts (e.g. with respect to the activity durations) in a systematic manner to prepare (robust) project schedules. The goal of this thesis is to investigate whether the application of fuzzy set theory within robust project scheduling can be extended to alternative (rather than the traditional) project parameters. The student is expected to illustrate and test these extensions based on a case study or artificial project data.
 
Advisor: Mario Vanhoucke 
Contact: Tom Servranckx
Skills: Project scheduling, Optimisation
Extra: This thesis is suitable for two students.
Substantive aspects:
Literature review: supportive
Case study/exercise: optionally
Software use: C++, optionally RanGen
Model/analysis: main goal of thesis
 
Topic: Diversified workforces and their impact on quality
 
Not yet assigned
 
Organisations are always striving for a diversified workforce. A good balance of older, more experienced, employees and younger, more dynamic and creative, employees is paramount in today’s organisational structure. Equally important is the inclusion of a set of specialist workers that counterbalance the large group of regular workers. Clearly, differences in skill-level and heterogeneous efficiencies will characterise these workforces. The focus of this thesis will be on the impact that skill-levels will have on the quality of the individual activities and on the project as a whole. In general, workers with lower skill-proficiencies will most likely deliver a worse product than their more highly skilled colleagues. The student starts by incorporating this in to a project scheduling problem and analyses the existing literature. Additionally, the student collects or generates data and uses it to test their heuristic approach to this problem.
 
Advisor: Mario Vanhoucke 
Contact: Jakob Snauwaert
Skills: Project Management, Project Scheduling, Optimisation
Extra: This thesis is suitable for two students. Use of LaTeX is mandatory.
Substantive aspects:
Literature review: supportive
Case study/exercise: optionally
Software use: C++
Model/analysis: main goal of thesis
 
Topic: An analysis of the existing datasets for multi-skilled projects
 
Not yet assigned
 
In recent years, service organisations as well as manufacturing organisations have been downsizing their resource pool. This is induced by the recent increasing need in flexibility and versatility of workers, which also had an impact on the recent research in project scheduling. To reduce the gap between the industry and the literature, a multi-skilled extension on the traditional RCPSP was introduced. The goal of this master’s thesis is to analyse and compare the different existing datasets on the MSRCPSP and to develop a new dataset that deals with the flaws of the others as well as incorporates new characteristics. These newly developed instances will bring research and the theory behind the multi-skilled resource-constrained project scheduling problem closer to real-life projects.
 
Advisor: Mario Vanhoucke 
Contact: Jakob Snauwaert
Skills: Project Management, Project Scheduling, Optimisation
Extra: This thesis is suitable for two students. Use of LaTeX is mandatory.
Substantive aspects:
Literature review: supportive
Case study/exercise: no
Software use: C++
Model/analysis: main goal of thesis
 
Topic: Resource Renting Problem with heterogeneous efficiencies
 
Not yet assigned
 
The Resource Renting Problem (RRP) is a subproblem in project scheduling that intends to minimise resource availability costs under temporal constraints. The RRP looks for the optimal moments to hire and fire workers. This results in a trade-off between keeping idle resources, which will increase the renting costs, and firing them, which brings along procurement and removal costs. In this case, there is the extension of heterogeneous efficiencies, which means that the resource costs will vary among the different workers. The student is expected to collect empirical data and find additional practical applications of this case. This data and its characteristics will be compared to the literature. Afterwards the student analyses the empirical data thoroughly and develops a solution approach for the problem.
 
Advisor: Mario Vanhoucke 
Contact: Jakob Snauwaert
Skills: Project Management, Project Scheduling, Optimisation
Extra: This thesis is suitable for two students. Use of LaTeX is mandatory.
Substantive aspects:
Literature review: supportive
Case study/exercise: yes
Software use: C++, optionally RanGen
Model/analysis: main goal of thesis
 
Topic: Multi-skilled resource investment problem
 
Not yet assigned
 
The resource investment problem deals with the research question: “What is the cheapest workforce pool for a given schedule?”. The goal is to minimise the resource availability costs and to schedule activities subject to precedence constraints and a project deadline. A key characteristic of this problem is that the costs of making the resources available are independent of time. As a result, the amount of times the resources are deployed in the project does not affect their cost. In this case, the resource availability costs depend on the skillset of the multi-skilled resource. The student will look for companies that work in a project environment and deal with this problem. Next he or she will develop a solution approach to this problem and test it on the empirical data from these companies.
 
Advisor: Mario Vanhoucke 
Contact: Jakob Snauwaert
Skills: Project Management, Project Scheduling, Optimisation
Extra: This thesis is suitable for two students. Use of LaTeX is mandatory.
Substantive aspects:
Literature review: supportive
Case study/exercise: yes
Software use: C++, optionally RanGen
Model/analysis: main goal of thesis
 
A case study on skills in project management: Empirical data collection and solutions
 
Not yet assigned
 
The goal of this thesis is to collect empirical data of projects that incorporate skills. In the well-known RCPSP every activity has a demand for resources, or more specifically resource types. In this case, we are looking for projects that have a demand for skills, to which these resources can be assigned to. The student will visit companies and gather real-life data which he will analyse thoroughly. Additionally, the student will develop a procedure that assists in dealing with the data. From this procedure and its outcome the student will gain new knowledge and give managerial insights.
 
Advisor: Mario Vanhoucke 
Contact: Jakob Snauwaert
Skills: Project Management, Project Scheduling, Optimisation
Extra: This thesis is suitable for two students. Use of LaTeX is mandatory.
Substantive aspects:
Literature review: supportive
Case study/exercise: yes
Software use: optionally
Model/analysis: main goal of thesis
 
Topic: On the human aspect of Project Management
 
Not yet assigned
 
To have great project success managing human resources is not an option, it is a necessity. There have been several studies on the use and impact of human resources in the project scheduling environment and they put values on certain characteristics, such as productivity, effectiveness, learning, skills levels, etc. But there are also less-quantifiable aspects of human resources that the current literature has not taken into account yet. In this thesis, the student will look at the less- (or non-) quantifiable aspects of human resources in projects and analyse the possible impact on project performance. Examples of these less-quantifiable aspects are communication, competencies and team coordination. Additionally, the student will study feedback techniques and other techniques and their effect on the project.
 
Advisor: Mario Vanhoucke 
Contact: Jakob Snauwaert
Skills: Project Management
Extra: This thesis is suitable for two students. Use of LaTeX is mandatory.
Substantive aspects:
Literature review: yes
Case study/exercise: no
Software use: optionally ProTrack, CPLEX or Gurobi
Model/analysis: supportive
 
Topic: Partitioning strategies in project networks
 
Not yet assigned
 
In different areas of project management, a project network is decomposed in chains. For instance, in Critical Chain/Buffer management, the critical chain is identified and the remaining activities are divided over feeding chains to determine buffers. There are multiple ways to create these feeding chains, but no research exists that investigates the impact of how these chains are created. This thesis has three objectives: provide a literature overview on chain partitioning strategies in networks, implement different of these partitioning strategies and analyse their impact on the robustness of the schedules of Critical Chain/Buffer management.
 
Advisor: Mario Vanhoucke 
Contact: Rob Van Eynde
Skills: Project Management
Extra: This thesis is suitable for one student. Use of LaTeX is mandatory.
Substantive aspects:
Literature review: supportive
Case study/exercise: optionally
Software use: C++, P2 Engine
Model/analysis: main goal of thesis
 
Topic: Disjunctive arcs and resource flows in project networks
 
Not yet assigned
 
In the project scheduling problem, multiple activities of a project compete for the same resources. As resource availability is limited, certain activities need to be delayed until enough resources are available. There are different ways to determine which activities have to be delayed, a very popular approach is to use priority rules. Another possibility is to look at the resources as a flow that goes from one activity to another. However, this option has received less attention from researchers. The first objective of this master thesis is to create an overview of the existing literature on this topic. The second objective is to investigate how this approach of resource flows may help to create project schedules and to design a scheduling method that works based on this flow concept.
 
Advisor: Mario Vanhoucke 
Contact: Rob Van Eynde
Skills: Project Management
Extra: This thesis is suitable for one student. Use of LaTeX is mandatory.
Substantive aspects:
Literature review: supportive
Case study/exercise: no
Software use: C++
Model/analysis: main goal of thesis
 
Topic: Complexity of multi-project scheduling: the quest for accurate measures
 
Not yet assigned
 
Multi-project scheduling is an extension of the well-known project scheduling problem. There are multiple projects that have to be planned simultaneously, which makes this problem even harder than its single project variant. There are multiple measures that try to predict this complexity and extensions for the multi-project problem exist. However, these measures lack validation and new measures should be included in the analysis. The goals of this thesis are threefold. First, the student has to get an overview of the existing measures and identify possible flaws (some existing research is available here). Second, new measures will be designed that try to improve the current ones. Third, all measures have to be compared in an experimental study.
 
Advisor: Mario Vanhoucke 
Contact: Rob Van Eynde
Skills: Project Management
Extra: This thesis is suitable for one student. Use of LaTeX is mandatory.
Substantive aspects:
Literature review: supportive
Case study/exercise: no
Software use: C++
Model/analysis: main goal of thesis
 
Topic: Quality objectives in project scheduling
 
Not yet assigned
 
The traditional objectives in project scheduling literature are related to cost or time. Some models exist that incorporate quality as an objective, but they are not that realistic in practice. This master thesis has three goals. First, the student has to investigate how companies incorporate quality objectives into the design and scheduling phases of their projects. To achieve this, data from different companies have to be collected, preferably in different industries. The second goal is to formulate one or more mathematical models that incorporate the quality objectives based on the practices of the contacted companies. Third, a scheduling procedure has to be designed that takes into account the quality objective.
 
Advisor: Mario Vanhoucke 
Contact: Rob Van Eynde
Skills: Project Management
Extra: This thesis is suitable for two students. Use of LaTeX is mandatory.
Substantive aspects:
Literature review: supportive
Case study/exercise: yes
Software use: CPLEX, C++
Model/analysis: main goal of thesis
 
Topic: The untruthful project manager
 
Not yet assigned
 
Most of the research on project scheduling focuses on the scheduling process from the viewpoint of the project manager. He or she is responsible for achieving the objectives (time, cost and quality). This manager is evaluated by a controlling agent: a boss or a client. However, this agent does not have a clear view on the actual performance of the project and depends on the manager for this information. As a consequence, the manager may try to hide bad performance by not revealing all information or by revealing wrong information. The goal of this master thesis is to model and analyse the impact of this behaviour on the performance of the project and to identify ways to improve the actual performance for the controlling agent.
 
Advisor: Mario Vanhoucke 
Contact: Rob Van Eynde
Skills: Project Management
Extra: This thesis is suitable for two students. Use of LaTeX is mandatory.
Substantive aspects:
Literature review: supportive
Case study/exercise: yes
Software use: CPLEX
Model/analysis: main goal of thesis
 
Topic: A case study on the attributes of corrective actions and their impact on the project outcome
 
Not yet assigned
 
The goal of project control is monitoring the project performance in order to detect deviations from the plan and taking corrective actions to get the project back on track when necessary. In recent literature, several computational and empirical studies have proposed methodologies to improve the monitoring process. However, little research has been performed on the characteristics of the corrective actions that should be taken when a project is endangered. In computational experiments, the cost and impact of these corrective actions is often determined arbitrarily. The purpose of this case study is to investigate the characteristics of the corrective actions and their impact on the project outcome, such that more realistic input parameters can be used in computational experiments.
 
Advisor: Mario Vanhoucke 
Skills: Project Management, Project Control
Extra: This thesis is suitable for two students.
Substantive aspects:
Literature review: supportive
Case study/exercise: yes
Software use: ProTrack, optionally P2 Engine and/or C++
Model/analysis: main goal of thesis
 
Topic: A case study on the impact of corrective actions on the time, cost and quality of projects
 
Not yet assigned
 
When the observed progress during project execution is insufficient to achieve project success, warning signals are generated that act as triggers for corrective actions. Corrective actions are taken on one or more of the project activities, and require a certain amount of effort (in terms of time and/or money) to be implemented. The impact of taking corrective actions on three important aspects of the project (time, cost and quality) depends on the direct and indirect effect of the corrective actions. The purpose of this case study is to review which corrective actions are taken during project execution, what the direct and indirect effects of these actions are and how these actions affect the project outcome, using both qualitative (i.e. interview with project managers) and quantitative (i.e. evaluation of data and outcomes) research.
 
Advisor: Mario Vanhoucke 
Skills: Project Management, Project Control
Extra: This thesis is suitable for two students.
Substantive aspects:
Literature review: supportive
Case study/exercise: yes
Software use: ProTrack, optionally P2 Engine and/or C++
Model/analysis: main goal of thesis
 
Topic: A simulation study on activity selection methods to improve the effectiveness of corrective actions
 
Not yet assigned
 
The goal of project control is monitoring the project performance in order to detect deviations from the plan and, when necessary, take corrective actions to get the project back on track. More specifically, the progress of the project is monitored during execution and warning signals are generated when the progress is insufficient. These warning signals act as a trigger for action to the project manager. In order to get the project back on track, he or she should determine which actions should be taken on which activities, given a limited availability of time and/or money. The focus of this thesis is on the selection process of the activities to take corrective actions on, in order to implement the most effective corrective actions. Using a simulation study, existing methods to rank activities according to the expected effectiveness of corrective actions should be reviewed, and adaptations to improve these methods should be proposed.
 
Advisor: Mario Vanhoucke 
Skills: Project Management, Project Control, Risk Analysis, Simulation
Extra: This thesis is suitable for two students.
Substantive aspects:
Literature review: supportive
Case study/exercise: yes
Software use: P2 Engine, R, optionally c++
Model/analysis: main goal of thesis
 
Topic: A simulation study on the effectiveness of investing effort in corrective actions to improve the project outcome
 
Not yet assigned
 
Project control consists of monitoring the project performance in order to detect deviations from the plan and taking corrective actions to get the project back on track when necessary. More specifically, the progress of the project is monitored during execution and warning signals are generated when the progress is insufficient. These warning signals act as triggers for corrective actions to the project manager. This thesis focuses on deciding how much effort should be invested in corrective actions on a project activity (given a limited availability of time and/or effort to invest), in order to finish the project on time and within budget. A simulation study should be conducted to review the relation between the amount of effort invested and the impact on the project outcome.
 
Advisor: Mario Vanhoucke 
Skills: Project Management, Project Control, Risk Analysis, Simulation
Extra: This thesis is suitable for two students.
Substantive aspects:
Literature review: supportive
Case study/exercise: yes
Software use: P2 Engine, R, optionally c++
Model/analysis: main goal of thesis
 
Topic: A simulation study to review the optimal timing of corrective actions
 
Not yet assigned
 
The goal of project control is monitoring the project performance in order to detect deviations from the plan and, when necessary, take corrective actions to get the project back on track. More specifically, the progress of the project is monitored during execution and warning signals are generated when the progress is insufficient. These warning signals act as a trigger for action to the project manager. In order to get the project back on track, he or she should determine which actions should be taken on which activities, given a limited availability of time and/or money. This thesis focuses on determining the optimal timing to take corrective actions. While corrective actions should be taken when warning signals are generated, the project manager can decide to invest more effort in the early, middle or late project phases. While early corrective actions are likely to be more effective than late corrective actions, it is more likely that the former are a reaction to false warning signals, and thus redundant. A simulation study should be conducted to assess this trade-off in order to provide useful guidelines to monitor and control real-life projects.
 
Advisor: Mario Vanhoucke 
Skills: Project Management, Project Control, Risk Analysis, Simulation
Extra: This thesis is suitable for two students.
Substantive aspects:
Literature review: supportive
Case study/exercise: yes
Software use: P2 Engine, R, optionally c++
Model/analysis: main goal of thesis
 
Topic: Hybrid strategies for product portfolio demand prediction
 
Not yet assigned
 
Traditionally companies have used time series models (ARIMA, SARIMA, Holt, Winters,...) to predict the demand for their products. However, due to ever increasing demand for customer customization, shortening product life cycles and and the advent of online shopping these techniques are no longer able to make predictions for the majority of a product portfolio since they are mainly suited to products for which there is a reasonably high demand. The goal of this dissertation is to investigate how several different techniques can be combined to make predictions better. Specifically the use of clustering techniques to use historic information on related products for new product introductions and the use of causal models that use information on product categories, brands, online search trends,... are to be investigated. Moreover, the key goal of this research is to determine what a hybrid strategy for a complete portfolio could look like through a combination of various techniques (potentially weighted based on the sales volume of a specific product). The key goal of this dissertation is to conduct an experiment on real data from a mid-market retail company, in order to validate the conclusions of this research. 
 
Advisor: Mario Vanhoucke 
Skills: Operational research
Extra: This thesis is suitable for two students. Use of LaTeX is mandatory.
Substantive aspects:
Literature review: supportive
Case study/exercise: experiment on real data
Software use: C++, Python or R
Model/analysis: main goal of thesis
 

Topic: How to deal with the impact of project team composition on efficiency and flexibility in portfolio management

This thesis will focus on the formation of project teams and the consequences of it on the portfolio of projects. As we are working in a multi-project environment, multiple teams have to be composed in order to create the ability to work on different projects at the same time. This project team formation can be done in different manners. First of all, you can compose teams with more or less the same skills for all the team members present in one team. This will have a positive effect on the learning rate for those particular skills and on the efficiency in performing tasks which are asking for those skills. A downside will be that the teams will be less flexible in the kind of activities they can perform. A second way of team composition can be to create teams with a large diversity in the members’ skills. Consequently, a higher flexibility is created into the portfolio because projects can more easily be switched between the teams. This advantage has to be paid with less efficiency. The goal of this thesis will be to investigate how teams have to be composed taking the specifications and the uncertainty of the projects into account.

  • Advisor: Mario Vanhoucke
  • Contact: Tom.Servranckx@UGent.be
  • Skills: Project scheduling, Optimisation
  • Extra: This thesis is suitable for two students.
  • Substantive aspects:
  • Literature review: supportive
  • Case study/exercise: yes
  • Software use: Ms Excel, (ProTrack), C++/Java
  • Model/analysis: main goal of thesis
Not yet assigned
 

Topic: Agile team composition: a solution to maximize skills?

Nowadays companies are often working in a multi-project based environment. In order to execute these projects, teams of employees have to be composed. This thesis will focus on the idea of recomposing those teams after some projects out of the portfolio are successfully terminated. The student will have to focus on the advantages and disadvantages of forming every time new project teams. How does this have an impact on the way knowledge and skills are transferred between team members? Will this have a positive impact on the general learning rate in the company, or will particular knowledge deteriorate after some time? The ultimate goal of this thesis will be to make a comparison between fixed and agile team composition and the impact on the portfolio and the execution of it.

  • Advisor: Mario Vanhoucke
  • Contact: Tom.Servranckx@UGent.be
  • Skills: Project scheduling, Optimisation
  • Extra: This thesis is suitable for two students.
  • Substantive aspects:
  • Literature review: supportive
  • Case study/exercise: yes
  • Software use: Ms Excel, (ProTrack), C++/Java
  • Model/analysis: main goal of thesis
Not yet assigned
 

Topic: Case study: an efficient and flexible approach to deal with dynamically arriving projects

Research on multi-project scheduling is nowadays mainly focusing on a fixed number of projects which are all present at the beginning of the planning period and they all have to be scheduled before their individual deadline. This approach largely deviates from how things are going in real life. While some projects are being executed and others are already scheduled in the future, companies receive requests from clients with new projects. After a positive evaluation of the project’s contribution to the portfolio, these new projects should be fit into the already existing schedule. One of the goals of this thesis will be to investigate how companies are dealing with the problem in practice and inspired by this information a new methodology should be developed in order to satisfy as much requests as possible. In the meantime, resources should be efficiently used and the already scheduled and running projects have to be perfectly executed as well.

  • Advisor: Mario Vanhoucke
  • Contact: Tom.Servranckx@UGent.be
  • Skills: Project scheduling, Optimisation
  • Extra: This thesis is suitable for two students.
  • Substantive aspects:
  • Literature review: supportive
  • Case study/exercise: yes
  • Software use: Ms Excel, (ProTrack), C++/Java
  • Model/analysis: main goal of thesis
Not yet assigned
 

Topic: Project portfolio management – Analysing different ways of clustering projects wherein resources can be freely shared

Companies working in a multi-project environment have a whole portfolio of projects running at the same time. They can assign resources at the beginning of the planning horizon to each project and schedule each of them as a single project without the need to take the other projects into consideration. The purpose of this thesis will be to consider different ways of forming clusters of projects wherein resources can be freely shared and used by all projects in the cluster. By gathering real-life data an analysis should be made of how the company’s objective is impacted by these different ways of clustering.

  • Advisor: Mario Vanhoucke
  • Contact: Tom.Servranckx@UGent.be
  • Skills: Project scheduling, Optimisation
  • Extra: This thesis is suitable for two students.
  • Substantive aspects:
  • Literature review: supportive
  • Case study/exercise: yes
  • Software use: Ms Excel, (ProTrack), C++/Java
  • Model/analysis: main goal of thesis
Not yet assigned
 

Topic: Project portfolio management – Analysing the geographical location of resources in order to optimize the company’s objective(s)

 

A company’s resources can be placed on different geographical locations. A resource placed at one particular location can be used by all the projects in the vicinity. Consequently when taking decisions about the position of resources a couple of things have to be taken into account: e.g. serve as many projects as possible, minimize the number of transfers of resources to other positions… This last one can be necessary if a company has too many projects in its portfolio for its limited capacity of a particular resource. The purpose of this thesis will be to come up with a model to optimize the geographical locations of the resources, taking the restrictions and the company’s objective(s) into consideration. Testing this model on small examples should lead to some interesting conclusions and recommendations.

  • Advisor: Mario Vanhoucke
  • Contact: Tom.Servranckx@UGent.be
  • Skills: Project scheduling, Optimisation
  • Extra: This thesis is suitable for two students.
  • Substantive aspects:
  • Literature review: supportive
  • Case study/exercise: yes
  • Software use: Ms Excel, (ProTrack), C++/Java
  • Model/analysis: main goal of thesis
Not yet assigned