Criteria-directed task scheduling

Scheduling complex problem solving tasks, where tasks are interrelated and there are multiple diierent ways to go about achieving a particular task, is an imprecise science and the justiication for this lies soundly in the combinatorics of the scheduling problem. Intractable problems require approximate solutions. We have developed a new domain-independent approach to task scheduling called Design-to-Criteria that controls the combinatorics via a satisscing methodology and custom designs schedules to meet a particular client's goal criteria. In Design-to-Criteria, criteria directed focusing, approximation, and heuristics, in conjunction with soft goal criteria are used to make the scheduling problem tractable. We describe the interesting facets of the Design-to-Criteria approach and give examples of its power at reducing the complexity of the scheduling task while designing custom satisscing schedules.