1. A computer program product for improving scheduling of tasks, the computer program product embodied on one or more computer readable media and comprising: computer-readable program code means for computing whether execution of a plurality of tasks is feasible, wherein each of the tasks has an associated cost and an associated deadline; computer-readable program code means for adding an additional amount of time to the associated cost for each of the tasks, thereby yielding a revised cost for each task, when the execution is computed to be feasible; computer-readable program code means for iteratively repeating operation of the computer-readable program code means for computing and the computer-readable program code means for adding, until the execution is computed to be no longer feasible; and computer-readable program code means for using the revised cost for each task as an upper limit on execution time for the task, after operation of the computer-readable program code means for iteratively repeating.