ABSTRACT
Whenever any job has to be accomplished according to a time or date deadline, it is advisable to have at least some idea of the relationship between the time allowed and the time needed. 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 personage arrive to open a new motorway if, by cutting the tape, the eager and unsuspecting traffic were to be released towards a bridge that still consisted of a few girders over a yawning chasm, complete with rushing torrent below. So it is a safe assumption that a plan of some sort is always advisable if a project is to be finished on time.
