ABSTRACT
Whenever any job has to be finished within a time deadline, it is advisable to have some idea of the relationship between the time needed and the time available. This is true for any project, whether a dinner is being prepared or a motorway constructed. In the first case one would be ill advised to tell guests ‘Dinner is at seven – but the potatoes will not be ready until 7.30’. Similarly, there would be little point in having an eminent person arrive to open a new motorway if, by cutting the tape, the unsuspecting traffic were to be freed to rush headlong towards an unfinished bridge that comprised a few girders over a yawning chasm, complete with rushing torrent below. A plan will always be needed if a project is to be finished on time. In our culinary example planning is simple and informal, conducted solely within the brain of the cook. Projects such as motorways are more complicated and need special techniques.
