The Fifth Column: The PERT That Never Was or Data Collection as an Optimizer

computer for payroll and accounting meth ods, but they had a computer for that. He tried to sell them a computer for research and development, but they had a com puter for that too. He finally hit on some thing they had never tried, a computer to help them plan and monitor the status of their many government contracts for high value steel and beryllium castings. He sang the advantages of PERT/CPM and showed them wondrous output that would tell them the status of the hundred or so proj ects in the plant to four decimal places. The company was interested, no doubt about it. The salesman selected an analyst from his office analyst pool, much as a lob ster is selected for boiling. The analyst was told to make his home out there working with those splendid people and start laying the groundwork for the hardware and software PERT/CPM system soon to be bid. The analyst, fresh out of the air force, was blissfully unaware of the agenda re quired of an analyst employed by a com puter company. He went in thinking that he was supposed to solve the customer's problem, rather than set the hook for a big-bucks computer purchase. The fundamental idea of PERT is to get the "three estimates" for the duration of