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Optimization Tradecraft: Hard-Won Insights from Real-World Decision Support

Department of Operations Research, Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, California 93943
Department of Operations Research, Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, California 93943, This paper honors the memory of deceased coauthor Richard E. Rosenthal
gbrown{at}nps.edu

Practitioners of optimization-based decision support advise commerce and government on how to coordinate the activities of millions of people who employ assets worth trillions of dollars. The contributions of these practitioners substantially improve planning methods that benefit our security and welfare. The success of real-world optimization applications depends on a few trade secrets that are essential, but that rarely, if at all, appear in textbooks. This paper summarizes a set of these secrets and uses examples to discuss each.

"Thou shalt never get such a secret from me but by a parable."

Shakespeare, The Two Gentlemen of Verona

Key Words: decision-support systems; integer programming applications; linear programming applications

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