ABSTRACT
As a systems or operations manager, you will at some time be in charge of the completion of some project that requires cooperation and coordination among several people in charge of several different parts of the project. One example is the construction or assembly of a new food processing line within a food processing plant. Plans must be drawn, equipment must be ordered, new water and electric lines must be installed, concrete foundations for the equipment must be poured, preliminary trials of the system must be run, etc. Many of these activities (or tasks) must be done in a priority, or dependency, order; for example, the equipment cannot be installed until the utility lines are in place. However, some activities may be done at any time after some point in the project, and no other activity will depend on having these activities finished. Other combinations are possible, such as start task B at any time while task A is being done, or start task B and task A at the same time.
