Abstract
In software development projects, it is desired to complete multiple projects at minimum cost and time while ensuring that the completion date is the same for all projects to meet certain operational and strategic objectives. Also, full-time employees assigned to projects should be reallocated smoothly to other tasks without any idle time during project execution to minimize costs even further. This study describes a model that enables the use of efficient continuous variable nonlinear solvers for finding the optimal schedule for possibly a large number of multiple software projects that make use of shared resources. The study validates the proposed solution using a random generator of multiple software project instances while interfacing to online optimization solvers to find a solution. Our continuous variable model was solved in the cloud for optimality for large instances of upto 40 different software projects and 100 employees in less than 21 min using nonlinear programming algorithms.•A continuous variable nonlinear model is developed to efficiently schedule large-scale software projects.•The model enables scheduling for multiple projects with identical completion times while ensuring work continuity.•A cloud-based program architecture is designed to facilitate the testing of multiple solvers online.