Consider a research and development project for a new plastics product involving over 2000 activities, a budget of $1 to $1.3 million, and an estimated time frame of 20-26 months. Management wishes to use network analysis to plan and monitor progress on the project. An updated network schedule is desired the fist of every month, including graphic presentations of

(a) the critical path activities and their schedule status,

(b) summaries of costs to date compared with budget, and

(c) listings of activities under the responsibility of each internal department and each outside vendor and contractor. If you are to prepare the project network and present the desired monthly reports: Would you want to use a computer program or make the analyses manually? If you decide to shop for computer software, what features would you seek? Would any of the programs listed in Table 11-2 not meet your needs?