Detection of Resource Overload in Conditions of Project Ambiguity

The planning of project resource allocation is an important part of project management, but it often suffers from uncertainty and ambiguity. Ambiguity conditions can be described and simulated by the theory of fuzzy sets and fuzzy quantities. The fuzzy approach to project planning is usually applied in critical path setting and project duration monitoring. In this article, we show a new application of the fuzzy set theory that involves planning project resource allocation and monitoring resource workloads. We derive the theoretical relations for the membership functions of the corresponding fuzzy quantities and demonstrate their application by taking a simple project as an example. The derived methods were used in planning a real project whose purpose was to analyze the possible resource workload. As a result, it was possible to recognize the serious risk of resource overload, which is not possible with the deterministic approach. They contributed to the success of the project.