In coordinating a research project of somewhat larger 
proportions, the most enormous problem is the one related 
to the involved manpower. This, however, is no great con- 
cern in small projects in which there are too few people 
and too few items to be coordinated anyway. The life cycle 
of a research program is schematically shown /after Norden, 
1960/ in Fig.2. 
  
  
oc Designing Information ; Development 
= and Acquisition Analysis and/or 
= Planning Release 
= 
0 
9 TIME 
Figure 2: Life Cycle of a Research Programm 
The equations developed to describe this process are: 
at^ 
y' 2kate” 
fl 
/1/ 
at* 
k/1- e ; / 72/ 
where: y° = manpower for each unit of time /eg., month/ 
- cumulative manpower to date from beginning 
i 
y 
= total manpower for the cycle 
parameter governing the shape of the curve 
= time from the start of the cycle 
= base of natural logarithm = 2.71828 
® oP ^ « 
T 
Seiler /1969/ observed that the pattern of each of 
the four cycles has a high degree of stability. Furthermo- 
re, the ratio of manpower requirements between any cycle 
and the next is also fairly stable and can be predicted. 
Though the factors a and k may not be known at the begin- 
ning of a project, completion or near completion of the 
firts cycle would provide data sufficient for relatively 
12 
ne 
A 4. od 
5 x