The invention pertains to an algorithm development environment for solving a class of combinatorial optimization problems. Many practical real-life applications can be formulated as combinatorial optimization problems. Over the years, there have been algorithms proposed to solve these problems. The effort in customizing algorithms to fulfill a particular domain-specific application is still significant. Furthermore, conventional approaches towards codes generation and modification are tedious and thus inefficient. To address the need for rapid generation of algorithms that are efficient in solving a given class of real-life problems, embodiments provide a hierarchical tree structure for managing a procedure modules library. Based on the preferred management and object-oriented design concept, users configure and generate a genetic algorithm (GA) via an intuitive graphical user interface. The goal-seeking customization of the generated GA can be easily carried out for solving various optimization problems. This way, the efficiency of algorithm development is enhanced significantly.