Traditional project management relies on hierarchically structured projects. As organizations decentralize, the need for distributed planning increases concomitant with a greater need for communication. Operations planning through distributed simulation has been shown to be an appropriate means of organizational role playing. We propose as the innovation to apply a hybrid Genetic Algorithm and decision rules as the embedded decision mechanism within a distributed simulation environment. This provides a tool for forecasting performance of Mission Operations Systems in manned space flight operations, within the simulation, "what-if" framework.The project management simulation has the potential to serve as an on-line forecasting tool. Management would have the ability to assess cost and schedule forecasts using current distributed information. Such a forecasting tool would benefit large scale engineering development, or project-driven organizations.Project Management, Distributed Simulation, Genetic Algorithms
