Decision support for staffing, outsourcing and project scheduling in MIS strategic plans

Implementing MIS plans requires simultaneous consideration of staffing, outsourcing and project scheduling. As organizations introduce new systems and phase out legacy systems, they weigh alternatives regarding the transfer of applications to new platforms, outsourcing of applications, development of applications in-house, and outsourcing of the development of applications. They also recruit new talent and develop new competence in existing staff. When MIS plans are too ambitious, schedules must be altered or additional resources must be acquired. To deal with these complexities, a mixed integer programming model was developed for the information services division of a state governmental agency. It enabled a thorough study of the economies of different combinations of full-time staff, contract workers and outsourcing to implement MIS plans. In this paper, we present the model and relate experience with its use.