Jack and Jill, they worked for Phil,
Creating commercial applications,
But Jack was lame,
With half a brain,
From a fall due to excess libations.
And so starts a twisted tale of a software project that demands unusual attention and management. Jack, Jill and Phil all work for Nu Rhyme Software Inc. They develop software for bottled water companies.
Jack has a slight disability from a fall when he was in college. The rumour still circulates on some web sites that Jill pushed him – but that is only a rumour. Phil takes no chances and does not allow them to work on any tasks together. Since this is only a 3 person software company, this means that either Jack or Jill must do each task alone. Phil is the boss and always does the first and last task just to appear busy. Phil does not do any other work.
Phil just got a new contract from Pale Water Company, a new bottled water company located on the top of Waterdown Hill. Phil wrote down all the tasks for the project in a table.
Phil does the first and last task. The length of time noted on the table is the time it would take Jill to complete the task – of course Jack will take twice as long. For example, if Jack interviews Pale then it will take 10 days instead of 5 days.
Solution Chart
| Description | Critical? | Start Date | Finish Date | Person | Length | Dependencies | |
| 1 | Start | X | 11/08/2016 8:00 am | 11/08/2016 8:00 am | Phil | 0 | – |
| 2 | Interview Pale | 3 | 11/08/2016 8:00 am | 17/08/2016 5:00 pm | Jill | 5 | 1 |
| 3 | Fetch Data | X | 11/08/2016 8:00 am | 22/08/2016 5:00 pm | Jack | 4*2 = 8 | 1 |
| 4 | Design S/W | X | 23/08/2016 8:00 am | 24/08/2016 5:00 pm | Jill | 2 | 2,3 |
| 5 | Build S/W | 3 | 25/08/2016 8:00 am | 29/08/2016 5:00 pm | Jill | 3 | 4 |
| 6 | Test S/W | 3 | 30/08/2016 8:00 am | 31/08/2016 5:00 pm | Jill | 2 | 5 |
| 7 | Documentation | 0 | 25/08/2016 8:00 am | 05/09/2016 5:00 pm | Jack | 4*2=8 | 4 |
| 8 | Install | 0 | 06/09/2016 8:00 am | 07/09/2016 5:00 pm | Phil | 2 | 6,7 |