A00070

Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad April 25, 2015

The CAT Project

It was mid-July 2014. Professor Pranjal Sharma, the Admissions Chairman of WIMWI (Well-
known Institute of Management in Western India) realized that he should start thinking about
conducting the Common Admissions Test (CAT) for admitting students to Indian Institutes of
Management and other business schools, as it was just a few months away. He began by
examining the activities involved in conducting the CAT:

Activity Activity Description Time (Days)

A Prepare preliminary set of questions for the verbal section 15
B Prepare preliminary set of questions for the quantitative section 20
C Prepare preliminary set of questions for the data analysis section 20
D Search for printers who could print the test papers 21
E Choose the test centres 30
F Print the application forms 14
G Advertise the programme, sell application forms and receive 14
filled forms from applicants
H Collate the questions into three sets of test papers 7
I Scrutinize the test papers for errors 7
J Get the test papers printed and procure the sealed test papers 21
K Despatch the test papers to the test centres 7
L Prepare the list of successful applicants 14
M Despatch admission cards to eligible applicants for examination 10
N Conduct the test 4

Not being familiar with Project Management, Pranjal walked over to his friend Professor Manoj
Bisht’s office. Manoj taught a course in Project Management. Responding to Pranjal’s request for
help in planning for CAT, Manoj asked Pranjal to describe in his own words as to how the
various activities were related to each other. “Why do you need that?” asked Pranjal. “That will
help in developing what is known as ‘Precedence Restrictions’ in Project Management,” replied
Manoj. “That is also required to identify the critical activities that would need your attention,”
continued Manoj. “Would I also know how long it will take to get everything organized?”
asked Pranjal. “Yes, it would be possible to determine what is known as the Critical Path. This
path is the one that will determine the time you would need to execute your plan,” said Manoj.

Prepared by Professor Samir K. Barua, Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. .

Cases of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, are prepared as a basis for classroom
discussion. They are not designed to present illustrations of either correct or incorrect handling of
administrative problems.
© 2015 by the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.
This document is authorized for use only in Rajesh Matai's Project Management-II Year at Birla Institute of Technology & Science (BITS) - Pilani from Sep 2019 to Nov 2019.
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The next day, Pranjal sat down in his office and started constructing statements that described
the relationships among the various activities pertaining to CAT. He realized that though he
had been in charge of admissions for a while, it was not easy to make the required assertions.
After about two hours of effort, he finally produced the following statements on how the
activities were related to each other:

1. The collation of the test paper cannot be carried out until the questions for the three sections,
namely, verbal, quantitative and data analysis have been decided.
2. The scrutiny of the test papers can be performed only after the collation of the questions is
completed.
3. The application forms cannot be printed until the test centres are finalized.
4. The printing of test papers cannot be undertaken until the printers are identified for printing
and the test papers scrutinized.
5. The list of successful applicants cannot be prepared until the application forms are received.
6. The admission cards cannot be despatched until the list of successful applicants is readied.
7. The test papers cannot be despatched unless the test centres are chosen and the test papers
are printed.
8. The test papers cannot be printed until the test centres are chosen.
9. The test cannot be conducted until the admission cards are despatched to the candidates
and the test papers despatched to the centres.

Manoj sat down with the statements articulated by Pranjal. As he was about to begin working
with the statements, Shahid, a student in his on-going course in Project Management knocked
on his door and entered his office. Shahid was to be given an assignment to make up for the
short-fall in his attendance in the course. Manoj saw an opportunity to test Shahid’s
understanding of the subject. Handing over the information provided to him by Pranjal, he
instructed Shahid, “I would like you to draw the Activity-on-Node network diagram for the
project and determine the critical activities and the critical path for the project. I would also like
you to model the situation as a Linear Program.” Though he said nothing, Shahid thought that
the task being assigned was disproportionately high. After all, he had missed just 2 classes
without applying for leave.

That evening while his colleagues were on the playground, Shahid was sitting in his room
attempting to complete the assignment.

This document is authorized for use only in Rajesh Matai's Project Management-II Year at Birla Institute of Technology & Science (BITS) - Pilani from Sep 2019 to Nov 2019.