Project management under uncertainty with applications to new product development

Product development efforts tend to be projects that are subject to considerable uncertainty. With that in mind, the focus of this paper is to define and develop a solution approach for planning, scheduling and managing project efforts where there is significant uncertainty in the duration, resource requirements and outcomes of individual tasks. Our approach yields a non-linear mathematical model for planning allocation of resources to tasks under uncertainty. It maximizes the level of confidence in the outcome of the set of tasks (project) taken as a whole. This central problem has importance and direct application to the management of product development efforts.