3 ms·

Thank you for this software. It is on my list of "need to try for real". What do you see as the main reasons holding such software back from mass use? Is it rea

by fegu 10y ago

Thank you for this software. It is on my list of "need to try for real". What do you see as the main reasons holding such software back from mass use? Is it real world soft constraints, or prevalence of "small enough for humans to do well" datasets or something else?

asimuvPR 10y ago
Could you share why you want to try it? What particular problem are you facing that this project solves?
- fegu 10y ago
  I am in general fascinated by software where you get non-obvious output from simple input. I would like to try this for employee rostering. My main reasons not to is an abundance of soft constraints (Mary prefers Fridays off, Lucy prefers her days off bundled together) and the fact that I live in a small country with small organisations where I am unsure of real benefits compared to manual work. As an aside, vehicle routing is a lost case here. We have few main roads along the coast and across mountains, nothing like the grid roads of central US. Vehicle routing is obvious here, no need for software.
  - wsdookadr 10y ago
    Which country ?
cpitman 10y ago
In my opinion there are two key factors: First, OptaPlanner does require a programmer to use. That means a random business user with a problem isn't able to just do it themselves, and instead needs a larger effort to try it out and see the results. It would be amazing if there was a way to give an "Excel" like experience to OptaPlanner, so that anyone could play around with models and optimization. Second, Lots of companies have found ways to accomplish their business without optimization tools. Often their processes are heavy on manual planning, and there is a general sense that the problem is too complicated and has too many factors for an algorithm to be able to do. I've had clients with perfect use cases for OptaPlanner stick with a-priori business rules because that is how they did things and they felt more in control. Convincing people to try out a magical optimization program that finds solutions is difficult. Disclaimer: I work for Red Hat. I've been a big fan of OptaPlanner even before it became one of our products!

by fegu 10y ago

asimuvPR 10y ago

Could you share why you want to try it? What particular problem are you facing that this project solves?

fegu 10y ago
I am in general fascinated by software where you get non-obvious output from simple input. I would like to try this for employee rostering. My main reasons not to is an abundance of soft constraints (Mary prefers Fridays off, Lucy prefers her days off bundled together) and the fact that I live in a small country with small organisations where I am unsure of real benefits compared to manual work. As an aside, vehicle routing is a lost case here. We have few main roads along the coast and across mountains, nothing like the grid roads of central US. Vehicle routing is obvious here, no need for software.
- wsdookadr 10y ago
  Which country ?

cpitman 10y ago

In my opinion there are two key factors: First, OptaPlanner does require a programmer to use. That means a random business user with a problem isn't able to just do it themselves, and instead needs a larger effort to try it out and see the results. It would be amazing if there was a way to give an "Excel" like experience to OptaPlanner, so that anyone could play around with models and optimization. Second, Lots of companies have found ways to accomplish their business without optimization tools. Often their processes are heavy on manual planning, and there is a general sense that the problem is too complicated and has too many factors for an algorithm to be able to do. I've had clients with perfect use cases for OptaPlanner stick with a-priori business rules because that is how they did things and they felt more in control. Convincing people to try out a magical optimization program that finds solutions is difficult. Disclaimer: I work for Red Hat. I've been a big fan of OptaPlanner even before it became one of our products!