Project assessment system and method

• US 7,729,932 B2
• Filed: 10/14/2003
• Issued: 06/01/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 12/09/2002
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd., Hitachi Plant Engineering & Construction Co., Ltd. (Hitachi, Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd., Hitachi Plant Engineering & Construction Co., Ltd. (Hitachi, Ltd.)
• Inventors: Nonaka, Hisanori, Nishikawa, Youichi, Kudoh, Makoto, Araki, Kenji, Yokota, Takeshi
• Primary Examiner(s): Jeanty; Romain
• Assistant Examiner(s): FEENEY, BRETT A
• Application Number:
  US10/685,839
• Publication Number:
  US 20040111306A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,422 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 705/7.17
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063118 Staff planning in a project environment
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06375 Prediction of business process outcome or impact based on a proposed change

Abstract

A computer readable storage medium encoded with a project assessment program for assessing a project including a plurality of processes when executed by a computer computing forecasts of the project based on a set of information. At least one scheme by a user input is selected from a group of schemes including an estimation of mutual-correlation of estimated value pattern. Process planning information, up-to-date actual process information and forecast model information of each process included in the project is retrieved. The forecast model information of each process of the project is defined as probability distribution variations of a plurality of parameters of the processes, wherein the probability distribution variations are quantitative values of the project. Estimated values of variations in at least two parameters of the processes using the process planning information, the up-to-date actual process information and the forecast model information are computed.

Claims

1. A computer readable storage medium encoded with a project assessment program for assessing a project comprising a plurality of processes when executed by a computer computing forecasts of said project based on a set of information, comprising:

selecting at least one scheme by a user input from the group of schemes comprising of an estimation of frequency distribution, an estimation of mutual-correlation of estimated value pattern, an estimation of standard deviation, an estimation of time-series information, and an estimation of fit to a predetermined pattern;

based on the at least one selected scheme, retrieving;

process planning information of each process included in the project;

up-to-date actual process information of said each process of the project, forecast model information of said each process of the project defined as probability distribution variations of a plurality of parameters of said processes, wherein the probability distribution variations are quantitative values of the project,

computing estimated values of variations in at least two parameters of said processes using the process planning information, the up-to-date actual process information and the forecast model information, wherein the estimated values of variations are different from the probability distribution variations, wherein the estimated values of variations are computed using the probability distribution variations, the probability distribution variations are determined by using standard normalized random numbers computed by a Molo algorithm,

assessing the project by determining one of either said estimated values of parameters of at least one process of the processes included in the project, or a comparison of said estimated values of variations to a predetermined criterion;

wherein in the scheme of the estimation of mutual-correlation of estimated value pattern,

a first process is selected from the processes of the project, estimated values of variations calculated for the first process are put into a sequence, one of estimated values of the variations is set as a first reference estimated value, and other estimated values of the variations of the first process are normalized based on the first reference estimated value so as to obtain a sequence X,

a second process is selected from the processes of the project, estimated values of the variations calculated for the second process are put into a sequence, one of the estimated values of the variations is set as a second reference estimated value, and other estimated values of the variations of the second process are normalized based on the first reference estimated value so as to obtain a sequence Y,

a mutual-correlation between the sequence X and the sequence Y is computed to assess how high the mutual-correlation therebetween is, thereby to find the estimated values of the variations by equation;

(Mutual-Correlation)=E((X−

E(X)(Y−

E(Y))/(√

V(X)√

V(Y))

wherein, ensemble averages of the sequences X and Y are defined as E(X) and E(Y), and square variances of the sequences X and Y are defined as V(X) and V(Y), respectively.

2. The computer readable storage medium as defined in claim 1, wherein said parameters include at least one of starting date, ending date, job volume, workdays, man-days, material quantities or cost.

3. The computer readable storage medium as defined in claim 1, wherein said computing function further includes creating graphs of frequency distribution for the forecasts of the variations of the parameters obtained by using random numbers are created, and using patterns of the graphs so as to assess the project.

4. The computer readable storage medium as defined in claim 1, wherein said computing function further includes, based on the forecasts of the variations of the parameters obtained by using random numbers, finding a variation pattern of the forecasts of the variations for one process of the processes of the project, and finding variations for another processes of the project, whose variation pattern has a positive mutual correlation with said found variation pattern, thereby to assess the project.

5. The computer readable storage medium as defined in claim 1, wherein said computing function further includes, based on the forecasts of the variations of the parameters obtained by using random numbers, computing standard deviations (A) of estimated values of a plurality of parameters of objective processes, and standard deviations (B) of estimated values of the plurality of parameters of the objective processes excluding an arbitral process selected by an user, and further using the standard deviations (A) and the standard deviation (B) to assess the project.

6. The computer readable storage medium as defined in claim 1, wherein said computing function further includes computing a time-series data of variations of said parameters based on said actual progress information, up to a time of carrying out assessment, and a time-series data of said variations of said parameters from a time of carrying out assessment to a future time, and

the assessing function makes the determination base in part on mutual correlations between the time-series data.

7. The computer readable storage medium as defined in claim 1, wherein said computing function further includes computing, by using a group of time-series data comprising of time-series data of variations of said parameters based on said actual progress information, up to a time of carrying out assessment, and time-series data of said variations of said parameters from a time to carry out assessment to a future time, a degree of mutual correlation of a said group of time-series data by setting a specific critical condition for variation range of at least one of said parameters among starting date, ending date, job volume, workdays, man-days, material quantities and cost,

and the assessing function makes the determination base in part on the degree of mutual correlations between the time-series data.