Effects of Distributed Ordering Mechanism in Task Allocation

Abstract

This paper describes a task allocation mechanism and its performance concerned with software developing. In recent years, multiple types of trading are available since the Internet-based commerce has been developing. Electronic commerce handles items trading including goods, information, times, right, tasks. When tasks are traded, players (software developers) bid each task with the valuation estimated by its cost. Auctioneer (outsourcer) allocates tasks to players based on the order of their valuations and he/she pays money to winners in the auction. However, when a software developer fails to develop the project and becomes bankruptcy, the outsourcer has much amount of damages and the risk of chain bankruptcy. To prevent him/her from such situation, we propose a new contract method based on distributed ordering in which the outsourcer allocates distributed tasks to multiple developers. Winners are determined based on valuations and ability where each developer declares. We also show the result of simulations with the rates of bankruptcy and discuss the effective strategy for outsourcer to allocate the tasks.