Real-time Collaborative Scheduling Tool

Abstract

In the context of team project, project scheduling is always an important issue in project time management because projects can be easily overrun due to various reasons. Therefore, better scheduling is essential in boosting workers' efficiency. In this perspective, a real-time scheduling tool which enables the collaboration of the whole project team is needed to enhance communication within the team and to generate a more accurate working schedule. Regarding the above, this project aims at improving the project time management processes by using an online real-time system. Real-time Collaborative Scheduling Tool (RCST) is a web-based application tool to enhance the effectiveness of scheduling of a team project. In the proposal of RCST, authorized users in the same project team should be able to modify the working schedule simultaneously by several simple clicks under the real-time online interface. Time conflicts across different schedules, including those between personal schedules and group schedules, can be detected by the system. Team members are able to have better communication on scheduling via RCST. Thus, the efficiency of teamwork can be boosted. To conclude, RCST is successfully developed as a real-time web-based application as proposed. The real-time broadcasting function for RCST applies the technology of WebSocket which is a protocol providing a full-duplex communication, so that the server is able to emit and broadcast information to clients actively. In addition, algorithm of interval partitioning is implemented in order to analyze the time conflicts among activities and visualize the conflicts on the graphical user interface. As a result, by simple steps, project members can modify activities and schedules easily and simultaneously.