Using an interactive schedule simulation platform to assess and improve contingency management strategies

•Different sequences of decisions (decision strategies) did affect project outcomes.•The time to apply resource policies is critical to the success of managing a project.•The proposed methods can generate satisfactory strategies before a project starts.

An understanding of the dynamic interactions between resources and the management decisions that control them is critical to effectively manage contingencies during the execution phase of a project. Hence, the objective of this paper is to study each resource decision within the context of sequences of decisions. This allows the consideration of dynamic interactions between resources, and designs control responses that account for uncertain outcomes and that minimize contingencies. It is hypothesized that the success of achieving project objectives and priorities is dependent on understanding ways of developing coherent management decision sequences. For given project priorities and outcomes, such decision sequences are defined as strategies. This paper proposes and implements a simulation based method to assess and improve alternative decision strategies. The theoretical contribution of this research is that it develops foundational simulation based methods that support the study of construction decision-making as a dynamic control problem.