This invention provides a method and system for cost-based resource scheduling. This invention develops an initial resource schedule. This schedule is then represented as a Schedule Precedence Graph, which is an acyclic directed graph consisting of nodes and arcs. Each node corresponds to a task to be performed, and each arc corresponds to a technological or assigned task precedence. Each node is assigned a cost, which corresponds to cost or savings due to delaying the task one time unit. In this invention, the Maximum Flow Procedure is iteratively invoked to determine which tasks can be profitably delayed.