What's wrong with the inventory system?
Communication is one of your accountabilities as project manager for the purchase of a new inventory tracking system for Little Prince and Princess Children's Wear. Several teams will use the new system:
• distribution, so they know whether they can fill orders from the company's five retail outlets and so they know when to trigger a purchase
• purchasing, so they can order products to fill the retail stores' needs
• accounting, so they can pay suppliers and charge the retail outlets
• operations, so they can monitor whether inventory is moving efficiently into and out of the company's warehouse
One of the first steps in your project plan is to get input from each of those departments about problems they encounter with the current system, as well as recommendations for solving them. You can then translate those recommended solutions into business requirements for the companies that have been chosen to bid on supplying, customizing and installing the inventory system.
Write a memo to the team leaders of those four departments highlighting the benefits and encouraging them to participate by responding to your memo. Request that responses to be honest about current problems and realistic about recommending solutions. The project plan you developed allows a week for them to respond.