What's the best was to manage a non-deterministic process such as design?

Question

Many processes, such as design, are non-deterministic. When you make a schedule for a project, you estimate how long each task will take. In design, if you are trying to come up with something that has never been done before, you don't know how long each task will take. How do you manage the schedule? For example, produce a schedule for replacing coal fired power plants with fusion power plants.

Answer 1

I think your question illustrates why there are good designers and good managers and they seldom occur in the same engineer. Nothing irritates me more than being asked how long it's going to take to perform the expected miracle, when I haven't even decided what sort of magic I'll need to use.

Seriously, I think you'd be interested in reading about what we used to call "critical path analysis." Do a search. There's a ton of stuff out there on this subject.

P.S. Is your avatar Zephram Cochrane (spelling?), inventor of Star Trek's warp drive? Way Cool.............