A conception of a new algorithm for the project time-cost analysis

The author presents again examples of activity-on-arcs networks already given in her previous contribution which revealed that in some cases the algorithm based on the critical path method with a time-cost analysis (CPM-COST) does not provide any optimal solution. The author also presents other defects of this method which have not been previously discussed. That is why, a new hand computational procedure for small projects is proposed. Its main assumption consists in taking into consideration, during the project acceleration, both critical paths as well as subcritical paths, the duration of which is longer than the desired project completion time. Additionally, the author puts emphasis on the fact that the project compression does not necessarily require that each critical path be shortened by exactly the same number of units. Sometimes other solutions are cheaper and just as efficient. The new technique is compared with existing heuristic and mathematical methods.