Patent Document ID: 7991633
Application ID: 10014919
Patent Flag: 1

Claim One:
1. A scheduling system for generating a schedule of start times for a plurality of tasks for a project, at least one task of the plurality of tasks having associated resources utilized to perform the task, the system comprising: at least one processor; a load leveler subsystem, executed by at least one of the processors, configured to receive data representative of the plurality of tasks for the project, and to generate a proposed schedule of start times for the plurality of tasks responsive to at least one scheduling constraint between at least two of the plurality of tasks and fluctuations of resources utilized to perform the plurality of tasks, wherein the plurality of tasks are steps in a workflow to complete the project, and wherein the at least one scheduling constraint requires a first task to be a predecessor to a second task within the workflow; a cost estimator subsystem, executed by at least one of the processors, communicatively coupled to the load leveler subsystem to evaluate the proposed schedule of start times for the plurality of tasks to compute optimal or nearly optimal resource availability levels, and from those resource availability levels estimate a cost associated with the proposed schedule of start times; and a cost minimizer, executed by at least one of the processors, communicatively coupled to the cost estimator for modifying the proposed schedule of start times for the plurality of tasks responsive to the resource fluctuations and its associated cost; wherein the load leveler subsystem is further configured to output data representative of the modified proposed schedule of start times for the plurality of tasks for the project.