The Tentative Event Strategy (TES): A Work Avoidance Strategy

This technical note presents the Tentative Event Strategy (TES), a strategy for reducing the work performed by a simulation engine when the deviation in the duration of different events can be very large and highly unpredictable. The strategy is compared to and contrasted with other methods, including discrete time step simulation techniques and continuous time methods. Quantitative analysis is not performed in this work as the strategy described is not appropriate for all types of simulations. Instead, the author describes his own experiences and provides suggestions on when and how to predict if the strategy could be useful in a given situation.