Metaheuristics for project and construction management – A state-of-the-art review

This paper carries out a detailed review of previous studies that employed metaheuristics to address problems/issues encountered in the life time of a construction or engineering project. The review is organized around critical problems/issues including engineering, cost estimation, planning, scheduling, and monitoring and control of project operations, with the objectives to optimize cost and time through the efficient uses of constrained or unconstrained resources. Metaheuristics are emphasized because they are especially suitable when approximate solutions are good enough in the case that the global optimum is either unknown or computationally too expensive to obtain it; both are characteristics of a typical large scale project. Based on the review, we offer our view of this research area and their potential for practical use. An attempt is also made to identify project management related topics where further advancement needs to be made.

Research Highlights
► Academic research has shown that metaheuristics could be useful tools to address project life cycle related problems/issues.
► Future research should focus on further development of new and effective metaheuristics with fewer parameters and applications of larger scale and more complex real world projects.
► Both software developers and major users should work together with academians to explore the full potential of metaheuristics.