Meeting Conflict Detection

A Python tool for detecting scheduling conflicts in weekly meeting calendars. Identifies both time slot overlaps and participant double-booking across a 5-day work week.

Features

• Time Slot Conflict Detection: Identifies overlapping meetings in the same time slots
• Participant Double-Booking: Detects when individuals are scheduled for multiple meetings simultaneously
• 30-Minute Slot Granularity: Tracks meetings in half-hour increments (9:00 AM - 6:30 PM)
• Weekly Calendar View: Manages Monday through Friday scheduling
• Clean OOP Design: Uses dataclasses for day and week management

How It Works

The tool uses a time slot dictionary system where each half-hour is represented as a float (9.0, 9.5, 10.0, etc.). Conflicts are detected using set operations to find:

1. Meetings scheduled in the same time slots
2. Project managers or participants assigned to multiple meetings at once

Installation

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/victord03/meeting_conflict_detection.git
cd meeting_conflict_detection

# No external dependencies required (uses Python stdlib)
python3 src/main.py

Usage

The tool requires two data files in the data/ folder (not tracked in git for privacy):

1. data/pm_names.py - Defines project manager/participant names
2. data/meeting_names.py - Defines meeting schedules

See the Data Structure section below for format details.

Run the detection:

python3 src/main.py

Project Structure

meeting_conflict_detection/
├── classes/
│   ├── ClDay.py           # Day container with 30-min time slots
│   └── ClWeek.py          # Week container managing 5 days
├── data/                  # Not tracked in git (contains sensitive data)
│   ├── pm_names.py        # Participant names
│   └── meeting_names.py   # Meeting schedules
├── src/
│   └── main.py            # Conflict checking logic
├── test/
│   └── test_main.py       # Test suite
└── README.md

Data Structure

To use this tool, create a data/ folder with two Python files:

data/pm_names.py

Define participant names as simple string variables:

"""Participant names for meeting conflict detection"""

pm1 = "John Smith"
pm2 = "Jane Doe"
pm3 = "Alice Johnson"
pmo = "Bob Wilson"

data/meeting_names.py

Import the participant names and define meetings as a list of 5-element lists:

"""Meeting schedules for conflict detection"""

from data.pm_names import pm1, pm2, pm3, pmo

# Meeting format: [name, start_time, duration, participant, day]
# start_time: float (9.0 = 9:00 AM, 9.5 = 9:30 AM, 14.0 = 2:00 PM)
# duration: float in hours (0.5 = 30min, 1.0 = 1hr, 1.5 = 90min)
# day: "Monday", "Tuesday", "Wednesday", "Thursday", "Friday"

list_of_meetings = [
    ["Project Kickoff", 9.5, 1.0, pm1, "Monday"],
    ["Team Standup", 10.0, 0.5, pm2, "Monday"],
    ["Client Review", 14.0, 1.5, pm3, "Tuesday"],
    ["PMO Sync", 11.0, 0.5, pmo, "Wednesday"],
    # Add more meetings here...
]

Note: The data/ folder is gitignored to keep sensitive colleague names and meeting details private.

Tech Stack

• Language: Python 3.10+
• Development: Test-Driven Development (TDD)
• Testing: pytest
• Code Style: Black formatter

Example Output

=== Conflicts Detected ===

Time Slot Conflicts:
- Monday 10:00-11:00: "Project Review" overlaps with "Team Standup"

Participant Double-Booking:
- John Smith: Double-booked on Tuesday 14:00-15:00 (Meeting X & Meeting Y)

Development

Built using Test-Driven Development principles with 15 commits showing iterative refinement. The codebase demonstrates:

• Type validation with meaningful ValueErrors
• Set operations for efficient conflict detection
• Clean separation of concerns
• Proper documentation

Status

Functional MVP - Core conflict detection working. Suitable for scheduling validation in professional environments.

License

MIT License