Combinatorial Efficiency Evaluation: The Knapsack Problem in Data Envelopment Analysis

The traditional data envelopment analysis (DEA) literatures generally concentrated on the efficiency evaluation of single decision making unit (DMU). However, in many practical problems, the decision makers are required to choose a number of DMUs instead of a single one from the DMUs set. Therefore, it is necessary to study the combinatorial efficiency evaluation problem which can be illustrated as a knapsack problem naturally. It is indicated that the basic model proposed by Cook and Green may have some drawbacks and a modified model, which is combined with the super efficiency model, is proposed in this paper. What is more, our proposed model is more persuasive to the decision makers because it is able to provide a unique best combination of DMUs. An adapted local search algorithm is developed as a solver of this problem. Finally, numerical examples are provided to examine the validity of our proposed model and the adapted local search algorithm

Clasificación Automática del Avance de Megaproyectos de Inversión Pública en Colombia, desde un Enfoque Técnico, Organizacional y Ambiental

Contexto: se considera el marco técnico, organizacional y ambiental (TOE, por sus siglas en inglés)  para el   análisis de proyectos de gran escala como contexto para el desarrollo de clasificadores de avance de megaproyectos, según las necesidades del Departamento Nacional de Planeación, Colombia. Método: se establecen algunas características para la clasificación del avance de proyectos de inversión pública, tomadas del marco TOE; a partir de estas, se construye una base de datos que se utiliza para entrenar dos clasificadores del avance de los proyectos reportados en la plataforma de seguimiento de proyectos de inversión del departamento de planeación nacional. Se empleó la información de cerca de 3200 proyectos registrados entre el 2008 y 2012, correspondientes a cuatro sectores económicos (medio ambiente y desarrollo sostenible, minas y energía, salud y protección social y transporte). La base de datos fue depurada siguiendo un enfoque analítico y cuantitativo. Se empleó el 70% de los datos para entrenamiento y el 30% para validación. Resultados: se obtienen algunos modelos con tasas de clasificación superiores al 70%, lo que valida la elección de características a partir del análisis del marco TOE. Conclusiones: este trabajo es un punto de partida para la configuración de una herramienta que pueda ser usada por el departamento nacional de planeación en la evaluación a priori del retraso de megaproyectos de inversión pública

A TI Verde e o correto portfólio de projetos sustentáveis

Sustainable development in the information technology industry is known as Green IT. Considering the need to generate consistent and sustainable IT projects, this paper presents a study on how Green IT criteria are used in the portfolio selection of information technology infrastructure projects. Method used was the multiple case studies, characterized by a qualitative evaluation. Object of this work was composed of sustainable companies whose shares are traded on the stock exchange, considering sustainability indexes. In addition to analysing the project portfolio management process, this work identified ten criteria that can be used to select information technology projects. We found that these criteria are not cost generators, but act on the tripod of cost reduction, maintenance or performance improvement and sustainability.O desenvolvimento sustentável no setor de tecnologia da informação é conhecido como TI Verde. Considerando a necessidade de gerar projetos de TI consistentes e sustentáveis, este artigo apresenta um estudo sobre como os critérios de TI Verde são usados na seleção de portfólio de projetos de infraestrutura de tecnologia da informação. O método utilizado foi o estudo de caso múltiplos, caracterizados por uma avaliação qualitativa. O objeto deste trabalho foi composto por empresas sustentáveis cujas ações são negociadas em bolsa, considerando índices de sustentabilidade. Além de analisar o processo de gerenciamento de portfólio de projetos, este trabalho identificou dez critérios que podem ser usados para selecionar projetos de tecnologia da informação. Descobrimos que esses critérios não são geradores de custos, mas atuam no tripé de redução de custos, manutenção ou melhoria de desempenho e sustentabilidade

Clasificación Automática del Avance de Megaproyectos de Inversión Pública en Colombia, desde un Enfoque Técnico, Organizacional y Ambiental

Context:   the TOE (Technical, Organizational, and Environmental) framework for the analysis of large scale projects is considered as the basis for the development of megaproject progress classification in accordance with the needs of the national planning agency in Colombia.Method: Classification of a megaproject progress is supported in the selection of several features taken from the TOE. These feature set is used to configure a database from the projects registered in the project-surveillance platform of the national planning agency in Colombia. The database is used to train two classification models. Information about 3200 projects from 2008 to 2012 was used, covering four economic sectors (Environment and sustainable development, Energy and mining, Health and social care and transportation). Debugging of the database was carried out by an analytic and quantitative approach. Model training and validation were computed with 70% and 30% of data respectively.  Results: obtained models have similar performances beyond 70% in precision and agree in relevant input features.Conclusions: this work is a starting point to develop an automatic tool that can be used by the national planning agency of Colombia in the a-priori evaluation of delays in public investment Megaprojects. Contexto: se considera el marco técnico, organizacional y ambiental (TOE, por sus siglas en inglés)  para el   análisis de proyectos de gran escala como contexto para el desarrollo de clasificadores de avance de megaproyectos, según las necesidades del Departamento Nacional de Planeación, Colombia.Método: se establecen algunas características para la clasificación del avance de proyectos de inversión pública, tomadas del marco TOE; a partir de estas, se construye una base de datos que se utiliza para entrenar dos clasificadores del avance de los proyectos reportados en la plataforma de seguimiento de proyectos de inversión del departamento de planeación nacional. Se empleó la información de cerca de 3200 proyectos registrados entre el 2008 y 2012, correspondientes a cuatro sectores económicos (medio ambiente y desarrollo sostenible, minas y energía, salud y protección social y transporte). La base de datos fue depurada siguiendo un enfoque analítico y cuantitativo. Se empleó el 70% de los datos para entrenamiento y el 30% para validación.Resultados: se obtienen algunos modelos con tasas de clasificación superiores al 70%, lo que valida la elección de características a partir del análisis del marco TOE.Conclusiones: este trabajo es un punto de partida para la configuración de una herramienta que pueda ser usada por el departamento nacional de planeación en la evaluación a priori del retraso de megaproyectos de inversión pública

Project portfolio selection problems: a review of models, uncertainty approaches, solution techniques, and case studies

Project portfolio selection has been the focus of many scholars in the last two decades. The number of studies on the strategic process has significantly increased over the past decade. Despite this increasing trend, previous studies have not been yet critically evaluated. This paper, therefore, aims to presents a comprehensive review of project portfolio selection and optimization studies focusing on the evaluation criteria, selection approach, solution approach, uncertainty modeling, and applications. This study reviews more than 140 papers on project portfolio selection research topic to identify the gaps and to present future trends. The findings show that not only the financial criteria but also social and environmental aspects of project portfolios have been focused by researchers in project portfolio selection in recent years. In addition, meta-heuristics and heuristics approach to finding the solution of mathematical models have been the critical research by scholars. Expert systems, artificial intelligence, and big data science have not been considered in project portfolio selection in the previous studies. In future, researchers can investigate the role of sustainability, resiliency, foreign investment, and exchange rates in project portfolio selection studies, and they can focus on artificial intelligence environments using big data and fuzzy stochastic optimization techniques

A hybrid fuzzy rule-based multi-criteria framework for sustainable project portfolio selection

Project selection is a complex decision making process that is influenced by multiple and often conflicting objectives. The complexity of the project selection problem is due to the high number of projects from which a subset (portfolio) has to be chosen. We present a hybrid fuzzy rule-based multi-objective framework for sustainable project portfolio selection. The multiple and conflicting objectives are considered as the input variables in a Fuzzy Rule-Based (FRB) system developed to estimate the overall fitness (suitability) of the potential project portfolios. A hybrid multi-objective framework integrates and synthesizes the results from a data mining model with the results from a Data Envelope Analysis (DEA) model and an Evolutionary Algorithm (EA) to design the structure of the proposed FRB system. The proposed framework simultaneously considers the accuracy maximization and the complexity minimization objectives. A Genetic Based Machine Learning (GBML) method is utilized to design an alternative FRB system for comparison purposes. The proposed framework and the GBML method are used to assess the alternative project portfolios in a real-world financial services institution. The statistical analysis shows the performance dominance of the proposed hybrid framework over the GBML method based on selected accuracy and interoperability measures

Proposição de um Modelo Matemático Baseado em Programação Linear para Priorização e Seleção de Portfólio de Projetos.

A escassez de recursos somada à alta competitividade entre as empresas faz com que companhias busquem alocar seus recursos em projetos que tragam os melhores resultados conforme seus objetivos estratégicos. É neste contexto que surge a gestão de portfólio de projetos, onde fazer o projeto certo é tão importante quanto conduzir e executar corretamente cada projeto. Nem sempre projetos resultam em ganhos financeiros, porém todos consomem recursos e buscam resultados. Atualmente, há uma grande variedade de modelos para gestão de portfólio de projetos disseminados dentro das organizações. Os modelos qualitativos geralmente proporcionam elevados níveis de imprecisão, já os quantitativos podem apresentar formulações matemáticas complexas. Entre essas concepções tem-se uma lacuna na literatura para a proposição de modelos que unifiquem a precisão dos quantitativos com a alta aplicabilidade dos qualitativos. Sendo assim, esta dissertação tem como objetivo apresentar um novo modelo para priorização e seleção de portfólio de projetos, baseando-se em Programação Linear e na atribuição de pesos aos projetos por parte dos gestores, considerando-se assim julgamentos e pontos de vista. Para tanto, optou-se pela modelagem como metodologia de pesquisa. O modelo foi aplicado a um órgão de uma instituição pública, a fim de verificar e validar os resultados, atestando-se assim a eficiência do modelo. Com base nos resultados, constatou-se que o modelo proposto possui benefícios de ambas abordagens típicas, qualitativa e quantitativa, e é capaz de prover os tomadores de decisão com respostas satisfatórias

A Methodology for Internet of Things Business Modeling and Analysis using Agent-Based Simulation

Internet of Things (IoT) is a new vision of an integrated network covering physical objects that are able to collect and exchange data. It enables previously unconnected devices and objects to become connected using equipping devices with communication technology such as sensors and radio frequency identification tags (RFID). As technology progresses towards new paradigm such as IoT, there is a need for an approach to identify the significance of these projects. Conventional simulation modeling and data analysis approaches are not able to capture the system complexity or suffer from a lack of data needed that can help to build a prediction. Agent-based Simulation (ABM) proposes an efficient simulation scheme to capture the structure of this dimension and offer a potential solution. Two case studies were proposed in this research. The first one introduces a conceptual case study addressing the use of agent-based simulations to verify the effectiveness of the business model of IoT. The objective of the study is to assess the feasibility of such application, of the market in the city of Orlando (Florida, United States). The second case study seeks to use ABM to simulate the operational behavior of refrigeration units (7,420) in one of largest retail organizations in Saudi Arabia and assess the economic feasibility of IoT implementation by estimating the return on investment (ROI)

Strategies for Implementing Critical Success Factors for Improving Information Technology Information Systems’ Performance in Financial Organizations

Information technology infrastructure library (ITIL) business leaders lack strategies for implementing critical success factors (CSFs) to promote organizational effectiveness and project success. As a result, ITIL leaders may experience less project success if CSF strategies are not effectively implemented. Grounded in the balanced scorecard (BSC) theory, this qualitative multiple case study aimed to explore strategies ITIL business leaders use to implement CSFs successfully to improve organizational efficiency for project success. The participants comprised five ITIL business leaders in the financial industry located in the southwestern region of the United States who successfully implemented strategies to implement CSFs to improve organizational efficiency and project success. Four themes emerged from thematic analysis of the data: organizational performance-CSF metrics, risk, quality, and business development. A key recommendation is for business leaders in financial industries to use CSFs to identify process areas that improve organizational performance for business alignment, customer satisfaction, and better product or service quality. The implications for positive social change include better working conditions for process improvement workers, employment longevity, healthy working relationships, and job satisfaction leading to community improvement that ultimately benefits citizens

Une méthode de tri multicritère multi-périodes pour la sélection de projet en contexte d'incertitude

RÉSUMÉ: Dans les dernières années, le gouvernement du Québec a souligné l'importance de la prise de décision dans un contexte de développement durable et de lutte contre les changements climatiques. L'évaluation des projets dans ce contexte devrait prendre en considération l'équilibre entre les critères économiques, sociaux et environnementaux à court, moyen et long terme. De plus, ces évaluations peuvent être imprécises et tâchées d'incertitude. Les problèmes de décision dans ce contexte sont complexes et caractérisés par les trois aspects suivants, à savoir l'aspect multicritère, l'aspect temporel et l'incertitude. Or, la plupart des méthodes multicritères sont statiques et seules quelques rares méthodes traitent l'aspect temporel des évaluations. En effet, des recherches récentes ont développé des méthodes multicritères multi-périodes de rangement mais au meilleur de notre connaissance, aucune méthode de tri multicritère multi-périodes ne fut développée à date. L'objectif de ce mémoire est de proposer une méthode de tri multicritère multi-périodes dans un contexte d'incertitude pour l'évaluation de la durabilité des projets. La méthode proposée est constituée de deux phases d'agrégation multicritère et d'agrégation multi-périodes. La première phase consiste à conduire les simulations Monte Carlo et à appliquer la méthode SMAA-Tri pour affecter à chaque période le projet à une des catégories prédéfinies. Ensuite, la phase d'agrégation multi-périodes propose d'agréger les résultats obtenus dans chaque période pour arriver à une affectation à la fois multicritère et multi-périodes. La méthode proposée a été appliquée dans le contexte d'aménagement forestier durable. Un projet d'aménagement spécifique qui consiste à implanter un plan de protection spécifique pour l'habitat du caribou a été trié selon un ensemble de critères évalués sur l'horizon de régénération de la forêt de 150 ans. L'incertitude a été simulée par 10000 simulations Monte Carlo à chacune des 30 périodes. Les résultats de cette application démontrent que la méthode proposée permet de généraliser la méthode SMAA Tri au contexte multi-périodes et aboutit à des résultats intéressants. -- Mot(s) clé(s) en français : Sélection de projet, Méthodes de tri multicritère, évaluations multi-périodes, Monte Carlo, incertitude, développement durable. -- ABSTRACT: In the last years, the government of Quebec emphasized sustainable and robust decision making in the context of climate change. Projects evaluation in this context must take into consideration the balance between economic, social and environmental criteria, over the short, medium and long term. Furthermore, decision criteria may be imprecise or uncertain. Decision-making problems in this context are complex and characterized by multi-criteria, temporal and uncertainty aspects. Yet, the majority of the multi-criteria methods are static and only few methods deal with temporal evaluations. In fact, recent studies proposed multi-criteria multi-period ranking methods but to the best of our knowledge, there is no multi-criteria multi-period sorting method proposed yet. The general objective of this research is to propose a multi-criteria multi-period sorting method in the context of uncertainty to be used for sustainability evaluations of projects. The proposed method is composed of two phases, the multi-criteria aggregation phase, and the multi-period aggregation phase. The aggregation phase consists of conducting the Monte-Carlo Simulations and applying the SMAA-TRI method at each period in order to sort the project in one of the predefined categories. Then, the multi-period aggregation proposes to aggregate the results obtained at each period in order to get a global sorting result. The proposed method is applied in the context of sustainable forest management. A particular project of forest management, that aims to implement a specific protection plan for the caribou habitat, is sorted according to a set of criteria evaluated over the regeneration forest horizon of 150 years. Uncertainty has been simulated with 10 000 Monte-Carlo simulations over 30 periods. The results of this application show that the proposed method generalizes the SMAA-TRI method to the multi-period context and provides interesting results. -- Mot(s) clé(s) en anglais : Project selection, multi-criteria sorting methods, multi-period evaluations, Monte Carlo, uncertainty, sustainable development