Time–cost evaluation of alternative system/process designs

Techniques for representing system/process designs are a common feature of most design methodologies. These techniques can be enhanced to provide valuable information regarding a specific design structure's trade-off between task completion times and cost. In this paper, we present a mathematical model and a solution algorithm which can be used to upgrade any well-structured representation technique to provide this trade-off. Having this information readily available allows a design team to focus on less quantifiable features of specific designs, thereby improving the overall design process.