A Multi Criteria Decision Making Model for Prioritizing the Non-Critical Activities in Construction Projects

The common approaches for project scheduling in the construction projects mainly focus on the critical activities and their delay risks. In contrast, delay risks of the non-critical activities are commonly ignored. Although, using float time of the non-critical activities give the project managers the flexibility for project execution, improper planning of these activities may turn them into critical activities or even cause delays in projects. In this paper, the delay risk factors of the non-critical activities are identified and a new methodology is proposed for prioritizing the non-critical activities to improve the planning process of the construction projects. Prioritization of the non-critical activities enhances the project manager’s vision toward the risks incorporated with using the float time of each individual activity. Moreover, due to the fact that multiple criteria need to be considered for prioritizing the non-critical activities, an MCDM method is used for this purpose. Finally, an algorithm is developed for application of the proposed methodology in the construction projects. The proposed method is evaluated through a case study and based on the prioritization results a discussion is provided to illustrate the practical application of the method.