A Generic Framework for Constraint-Directed Search and Scheduling

This article introduces a generic framework for constraint-directed search. The research literature in constraint-directed scheduling is placed within the framework both to provide insight into, and examples of, the framework and to allow a new perspective on the scheduling literature. We show how a number of algorithms from the constraintdirected-scheduling research can be conceptualized within the framework. This conceptualization allows us to identify and compare variations of components of our framework and provides new perspective on open research issues. We discuss the prospects for an overall comparison of scheduling strategies and show that firm conclusions visa-vis such a comparison are not supported by the literature.