Which algorithm for assigning shifts (discrete optimization problem)

Question

I\'m developing an application that optimally assigns shifts to nurses in a hospital. I believe this is a linear programming problem with discrete variables, and therefore p

Answer 1

Using CSP programming I made programms for automatic shitfs rostering. eg:

1. 2-shifts system - tested for 100+ nurses, 30 days time horizon, 10+ rules
2. 3-shifts system - tested for 80+ nurses, 30 days time horizon, 10+ rules
3. 3-shifts system, 4-teams - tested for 365 days horizon, 10+ rules,

and a couple of similiar systems. All of them were tested on my home PC (1.8GHz, dual-core). Execution times always were acceptable ie. for 3/ it took around 5 min and 300MB RAM.

Most hard part of this problem was selecting proper solver and proper solving strategy.