Today's typical probabilistic cost analysis assumes an "ideal" project in which whenever a cost element comes in low its savings are passed on where they are needed. Unfortunately in the real world “Money Allocated is Money Spent" (MAIMS principle), and cost underruns are rarely available to protect against cost overruns while task overruns are passed on to the total project cost. Realistic cos...

This research paper adapts intelligent water drops (IWD) algorithm to solve the discrete timecost-quality trade-off problem (DTCQTP) in software projects which is never solved before by this algorithm. Project manager's goal is getting an optimal allocation of time, cost and quality of each task/activity in the software project such that total time and cost of the project is minimized while pro...

Project cost becomes increasingly variable if many cost items for a construction project are correlated, and this can increase the uncertainty of completing a project within a target budget. This work presents a factor-based computer simulation model for evaluating project costs given correlations among cost items. Uncertainty in the total cost distribution of an item is transferred to several ...

Time-cost trade off problem is one of the highly important issues in project accomplishment and has been ever taken into consideration by project managers. Time and cost as two critical objectives of construction project management, are not independent but intricately related. Time-cost optimization may be defined as a process to identify suitable construction activities for speeding up, and fo...

This paper is a progress report on the results of a SECOE research project to collect and analyze data that describes project cost, schedule, and quality with systems engineering cost and quality. The original hypotheses to be tested are that (a) at low levels, increasing systems engineering effort results in better project quality, and (b) there is an optimum above which further increases are ...

background: in order to provide guidance on the efficient allocation of health resources when handling public health emergencies in the future, the study evaluated the h1n1 influenza prevention and control program in hubei province of china using cost-benefit analysis. methods: the costs measured the resources consumed and other expenses incurred in the prevention and control of h1n1. the assum...

During the implementation, construction projects usually encounter situation that considerably affects the project scheduling and cost. This study aims at using an improved version of the harmony search algorithm (HSA) to schedule resource constrained construction projects. This model is formulated as a global optimization problem. It will determine the duration of each activity to minimize the...

What effect does firm structure have on the product service quality on offer? We answer this question by empirically assessing the impacts of complete vertical separation, such as ownership unbundling, on the quality of service delivered by a liberalized network industry. Electricity distribution utilities in New Zealand are considered for this purpose. The results show robust evidence that own...

Based on case studies of several firms, accounting researchers have argued that traditional costing systems constructed using volume-related drivers understate the true costs of variety and other non-volume drivers. As a result, managers do not have appropriate information to make optimal tradeoffs between the costs and benefits of such strategic cost drivers. This supposed distortion in optima...

Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) remote sensing has demonstrated potential in measuring forest biomass. We assessed the ability of LiDAR to accurately estimate forest total above ground biomass (TAGB) on an individual stem basis in a conifer forest in the US Pacific Northwest region using three different computer software programs and compared results to field measurements. Software programs...