Critical path analysis with a spreadsheet

A spreadsheet can serve as a Swiss army knife to the busy manager, providing a quick and inexpensive alternative to special purpose software packages. This was the case, recently, for a project in a Health Service laboratory. Managers with a knowledge of critical path analysis and spreadsheets, faced with a simple practical application, obtained the results they needed within a few hours. This compares very favourably with the time requried to purchase a special software package, (which might not be needed again for years) and to become familiar with its usage, not to mention the saving in cost.