Stochastic Time-Cost-Quality Trade-Off Analysis: The PERT Approach

The main objectives of construction projects are to complete the project according to an available budget, within a planned schedule, and to achieve a pre-specified extent of quality. Therefore, time, cost, and quality are of the most fundamental attributes that determine the success of construction projects. It is vital to strike a balance between these three conflicting objectives, since no one solution can be optimal for all the three objectives. For the aforementioned purpose, a stochastic model is developed to optimize the total duration, cost, and quality of construction projects considering uncertainty by applying the program evaluation and review technique (PERT). To validate the developed model, it was applied to a case study. Results obtained by the developed model demonstrated its effectiveness and efficiency in analyzing stochastic time-cost-quality trade-off problems.