The method described consists of two steps. First, unnecessary programs are eliminated through a sequence of program transformations. Second, within the remaining set of programs, sometimes regarded as matrices, those where all possible combinations of synchronizations occur equally frequently are proven to be extremal. At this stage we obtain a formulation which is simple enough to allow explicit formulas to be derived. It turns out that the same method can be used for obtaining worst-case bounds on other NP-hard problems within computer architecture.