Similar project identification

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2018046959-A1
Application number	US-201615233067-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Aug 10, 2016
Priority date	Aug 10, 2016
Publication date	Feb 15, 2018
Grant date	—

Abstract

One embodiment provides a method, including: utilizing at least one processor to execute computer code that performs the steps of: accessing a project plan comprising a plurality of projects, each having a duration and resource requirement, wherein each of the plurality of projects comprises a plurality of tasks; representing the plurality of projects as a plurality of directed acyclic graphs; clustering a subset of the plurality of directed acyclic graphs into a cluster, wherein the clustering comprises identifying directed acyclic graphs having similar durations and resource requirements; generating a representative directed acyclic graph for the cluster; and providing the representative directed acyclic graph to a user. Other aspects are described and claimed.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A method, comprising:
utilizing at least one processor to execute computer code that performs the steps of: accessing a project plan comprising a plurality of projects, each having a duration and resource requirement, wherein each of the plurality of projects comprises a plurality of tasks; representing the plurality of projects as a plurality of directed acyclic graphs; clustering a subset of the plurality of directed acyclic graphs into a cluster, wherein the clustering comprises identifying directed acyclic graphs having similar durations and resource requirements; generating a representative directed acyclic graph for the cluster; and providing the representative directed acyclic graph to a user.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the representing the plurality of projects comprises representing each of the plurality of tasks as a node of the directed acyclic graph and a constraint associated with a task as an edge of the directed acyclic graph.

3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the clustering comprises identifying directed acyclic graphs having similar task descriptions.

4 . The method of claim 3 , wherein the identifying directed acyclic graphs having similar task descriptions comprises using a shingling technique to identify similar task descriptions.

5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the clustering comprises identifying similar directed acyclic graphs using a similarity measure.

6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the generating a representative directed acyclic graph comprises:
identifying the longest directed acyclic graph within the cluster; averaging the resource requirements and duration for each task within the cluster; and assigning the average resource requirement and duration to the tasks within the longest directed acyclic graph.

7 . The method of claim 1 , comprising identifying at least one directed acyclic graph in the cluster representing an outlier within the cluster of directed acyclic graphs.

8 . The method of claim 1 , comprising replacing a project within a project plan with a corresponding representative directed acyclic graph.

9 . The method of claim 1 , comprising identifying a project within a project plan outside a predetermined tolerance as compared to a corresponding representative directed acyclic graph.

10 . The method of claim 1 , comprising generating a sub-cluster from the cluster, based upon user input, and wherein the representative cluster is generated from the sub-cluster.

11 . An apparatus, comprising:
at least one processor; and a computer readable storage medium having computer readable program code embodied therewith and executable by the at least one processor, the computer readable program code comprising: computer readable program code that accesses a project plan comprising a plurality of projects, each having a duration and resource requirement, wherein each of the plurality of projects comprises a plurality of tasks; computer readable program code that represents the plurality of projects as a plurality of directed acyclic graphs; computer readable program code that clusters a subset of the plurality of directed acyclic graphs into a cluster, wherein the clustering comprises identifying directed acyclic graphs having similar durations and resource requirements; computer readable program code that generates a representative directed acyclic graph for the cluster; and computer readable program code that provides the representative directed acyclic graph to a user.

12 . A computer program product, comprising:
a computer readable storage medium having computer readable program code embodied therewith, the computer readable program code executable by a processor and comprising: computer readable program code that accesses a project plan comprising a plurality of projects, each having a duration and resource requirement, wherein each of the plurality of projects comprises a plurality of tasks; computer readable program code that represents the plurality of projects as a plurality of directed acyclic graphs; computer readable program code that clusters a subset of the plurality of directed acyclic graphs into a cluster, wherein the clustering comprises identifying directed acyclic graphs having similar durations and resource requirements; computer readable program code that generates a representative directed acyclic graph for the cluster; and computer readable program code that provides the representative directed acyclic graph to a user.

13 . The computer program product of claim 12 , wherein the representing the plurality of projects comprises representing each of the plurality of tasks as a node of the directed acyclic graph and a constraint associated with a task as an edge of the directed acyclic graph.

14 . The computer program product of claim 12 , wherein the clustering comprises identifying directed acyclic graphs having similar task descriptions.

15 . The computer program product of claim 14 , wherein the identifying directed acyclic graphs having similar task descriptions comprises using a shingling technique to identify similar task descriptions.

16 . The computer program product of claim 12 , wherein the clustering comprises identifying similar directed acyclic graphs using a similarity measure.

17 . The computer program product of claim 12 , wherein the generating a representative directed acyclic graph comprises:
identifying the longest directed acyclic graph within the cluster; averaging the resource requirements and duration for each task within the cluster; and assigning the average resource requirement and duration to the tasks within the longest directed acyclic graph.

18 . The computer program product of claim 12 , comprising identifying at least one directed acyclic graph in the cluster representing an outlier within the cluster of directed acyclic graphs.

19 . The computer program product of claim 12 , comprising identifying a project within a project plan outside a predetermined tolerance as compared to a corresponding representative directed acyclic graph.

20 . A method, comprising:
accessing a project plan comprising a plurality of projects, each project comprising a plurality of tasks, each task comprising a duration and a resource requirement; representing each project as a directed acyclic graph wherein a task within the project is represented as a node and a constraint associated with a task within the project is represented as an edge in the directed acyclic graph; grouping the directed acyclic graphs within groups, wherein the directed acyclic graphs have similar characteristics; generating a representative directed acyclic graph for each of the groups of directed acyclic graphs.

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Kenkre Sreyash D
• Pandit Vinayaka

Classifications

• G06Q10/06315

  Needs-based resource requirements planning or analysis · CPC title

• G06Q10/06311

  Scheduling, planning or task assignment for a person or group · CPC title

• G06Q10/06313 Primary

  Resource planning in a project environment · CPC title

• G06Q10/063

  Operations research, analysis or management · CPC title

• G06Q10/0631

  Resource planning, allocation, distributing or scheduling for enterprises or organisations · CPC title