Simulation of multi-project resource constrained software development projects and simulation optimization

Today, the management of software projects is crucial in the process of producing software used in almost every field, especially in business life and social life, and making it suitable for individual or collective use. In this period where customer satisfaction is at the forefront, software companies have to make an accurate planning in order to meet the needs of projects of different sizes and difficulties with their limited resources. While planning, the fact that employees have different skills and experience and that the requirements of each project are different are also factors that should be taken into account. In this study, a skill-based personnel planning problem that will improve the performance criteria determined by analyzing the stages of software development projects is taken into account. The aim of the study is to improve the number of completed projects, completion time of projects, employee costs and total profitability with correct workforce planning. Simulation modeling technique has been used to make the most appropriate planning for these conflicting purposes. With data adapted from a real software company, the current situation was modeled, considering the limitations of personnel ability and experience level that can work in each project, bottlenecks were identified and alternative system recommendations were made. In addition, the most suitable number of personnel to work at different stages of the software development project was determined with the simulation optimization method. When the results were examined, it was observed that simulation optimization improved the existing system in terms of the performance criteria considered. KEY WORDS: Software Project Management, Simulation, Experimental Design, MetaModel, Simulation Optimization