Many construction projects in the United States are facing the risk of cost overrun and schedule delays. This is also happening here in the State of Louisiana. When these things happen, it causes cost overrun which can then be passed on to the tax payers and may also cause the state to take on less projects than they normal. Many researchers have studied the reasons behind both the cost overrun and the delays resulting in private firms, developing project management tools and best practices to prevent this risk. In this research, I aim to study the historical trend in 2912 publically funded projects in the State of Louisiana. The study will reveal the overall state level of accuracy of forecasting cost and schedule. A forecasting formula based on those historical projects will be developed to assist estimators at the Parish level in predicting cost and schedule performance. The State of Louisiana has so many projects that deal with the transportation system (roadway, bridges, drainage, traffic sign, traffic signal, lighting etc...) My Dissertation will be a study and analysis of time and cost of the projects in LADOTD, whether the projects finish on time, before time or after time as well as the cost of the project that has been completed overrun or underrun or the exact amount that the bid amount was. With this study and analysis, my intention is to create time schedule and cost to be used to on reaching accuracy on finishing the project on time and the exact bid amount of the project (exclude whether condition, extra work, and some unexpected problems that may arise during the length of the project).

The objectives of this thesis are to evaluate scheduling methods and most common construction project management software (CPMS) which are Primavera and MS Project, and to determine most widely used project scheduling techniques and CPMS with a survey. The thesis focus on project scheduling since it is very deterministic for project success. Evaluation results indicate that, Gantt Chart Method and PDM are useful for small to medium projects, CPM is for complex projects, PERT is for uncertain projects, and LOB Technique is for repetitive projects. The comparison between Primavera and MS Project show that Primavera is more robust, professional, and detailed while MS Project is cheaper and easier. The survey was completed with 22 participants from construction companies in the US and Turkey and the results demonstrate CPM and Gantt Chart Method are the most common methods. Also, MS Project is the most widely used CPMS followed by the Primavera.

This doctoral thesis is focused on metrics and the criteria for socio-technical system diagnostics, which is a high profile topic for companies wanting to ensure the best in product quality. More and more customers are requiring suppliers to prove reliability in the production and supply quality of products according to given specifications. Consequently the ability to produce quality goods corresponding to customer requirements has become a fundamental condition in order to remain competitive. The thesis firstly lays out the basic strategies and rules which are prerequisite for a successful working company in order to ensure provision of quality goods at competitive costs. Next, methods and tools for planning are discussed. Planning is important in its impact on budget, time schedules, and necessary sourcing quantification. Risk analysis is also included to help define preventative actions, and reduce the probability of error and potential breakdown of the entire company. The next part of the thesis deals with optimisation problems, which are solved by Swarm based optimisation. Algorithms and their utilisation in industry are described, in particular the Vehicle routing problem and Travelling salesman problem, used as tools for solving specialist problems within manufacturing corporations. The final part of the thesis deals with Qualitative modelling, where solutions can be achieved with less exact quantitative information of the surveyed model. The text includes qualitative algebra descriptions, which discern only three possible values – positive, constant and negative, which are sufficient in the demonstration of trends. The results can also be conveniently represented using graph theory tools.