WAITING FOR GODOT: A PROCESS SCHEDULING PROBLEM.

The problem considered is derived from a computing environment in which different but dependent computational tasks are to be scheduled for execution on multiple processors. The test customer represents a computational task that depends on the results of an associated task. The test customer's mean delay until service is derived, assuming that he always maintains his position in the queue until he reaches the server. Conditions are given for which this move-along policy is optimal, i. e. , minimizes the test customer's mean delay until service. A condition is also given for which the move-along policy is not optimal.