Analyzing the Role of Mutual Communications in Project Management through Agent-based Simulation

Abstract

Papernumber: 001 (Assigned by Journal editor) Title of Paper : Analyzing the Role of Mutual Communications in Project Management through Agent-Based Simulation Name of Author(s) : Masao Watabe, Takao Terano Address, Email : 8-6, Kasuya-3, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo, Japan 157-0063 : mrwatabe@ruby.plala.or.jp Text of abstract This paper proposes an agent-based simulation model to analyze the roles of mutual communications among members of project teams. The objective of the research is to uncover the characteristics communication efficiency in large scale and shorter delivery projects. They have reported that making the delivery period of a project shorter often causes cost-over-run and/or schedule-delay. However, few results have been quantitatively investigated. In order to explore the better communication ways in project management, we have employed agent-based simulation models, in which we implement a manager-leaders group as communication agents based on Axelrod’s tag model. From intensive experiments, we have following major conclusions: 1) The project productivity is proportional with the efficiency of mutual communications among team members. 2) The larger the scale of a project becomes, the less efficient the communication becomes. 3) Making a delivery period of larger projects shorter is difficult comparing with the one of smaller projects. 4) To make the better communication, it will be effective to inform many issues at once. Such tactics is more effective in a large scale and short term project than in a small scale and/or long term project. 5) In any size of projects, it is effective to take enough time for communication. Once a meeting is held in a project, participants should exchange information each other until the end of discussion for all issues they have.