Performance Guarantees for Scheduling Algorithms

One approach to coping with the apparent difficulty of many schedule-optimization problems, such as occur in machine shops and computer processing, is to devise efficient algorithms that find schedules guaranteed to be “near-optimal.” This paper presents an introduction to this approach by describing its application to a well-known multiprocessor scheduling model and illustrating the variety of algorithms and results that are possible. The paper concludes with a brief survey of what has been accomplished to date in the area of scheduling using this approach.