Analyzing linear recursive projects as an absorbing chain

Project management is usually calculated as a set of static activities, whereas in reality these activities tend to be dynamic involving multiple feedbacks (Park and Peña-Mora [5]). This results in many late project completions. Recently research has been done to formulate and analyze various methods to improve project prediction and control. These include concurrent engineering (Carter and Baker [1]) and stage-gate systems (Cooper [2]) in which projects must meet specifications before they pass from one stage to another. The activities within a project are governed by constraints as well as precedence relationships in traditional network scheduling like CPM (critical path method, Dupont Inc. and Remington Rand, 1958), PDM (procedure diagramming method, IBM Co., 1964) and PERT (program evaluation and review technology, US Navy, Booz-Allen Hamilton and Lockheed Co. 1958).