Project evaluation and selection techniques constitute an important body of knowledge for those concerned with making individual, corporate, and public investment decisions. During the past twenty years a number of important and useful concepts and techniques have been developed and are reported primarily in journals and specialized texts. The purpose of this book is to present these concepts and techniques in an integrated framework built on traditional engineering economics principles. The book is intended for first-year graduate students in engineering, business, operations research, and systems analysis. For a complete understanding of the material, the student should have a background in calculus, introductory linear programming, and introductory probability and statistics and has some familiarity with simulation. For students not familiar with these background topics, the relevant sections can be skipped without loss of continuity, or supplementary material can be provided by the instructor. A first course in engineering economics or business finance is helpful but not necessary, since the treatment of basic tonics here is fairly complete.
