You work for Point-Of-Sale Solutions (POSS), an international point of sale company, which has decided to provide an Internet enabled menu ordering system delivered on the iPad as a result of its market research. The iPad Menu Selection/Local Surfing Project involves developing a Web-based application and support structure to provide customers with access to the correct menu for the day as well as an ordering facility and a local surfing facility that will allow the café to provide links out to suppliers of local product. For example, a group of customers would come into the café and be seated at a table with an iPad. The customers would then view the menu via the iPad and make their order selections which are then immediately sent to the kitchen, table seating system and the payment system. While customers are waiting they can explore a ring fenced area of the Internet that includes any products that the café may sell as well as any local tourism partners web sites, products and services including any special alliance discounts or special offers. The system should also cater for repeat customers allowing them to take advantage of loyalty offers such as 5th or 10th coffee free offers.
You have been selected as the project manager for the iPad Menu Selection Project which will involve developing and rolling out the system at the Kauri Café. The Kauri Café is located on an esplanade in a stylish part of town. It attracts both tourist and beach going clients as well as local business owners who use the café as a meeting place with their clients and local residents who use the cafe.
The Kauri Café store manager, Sanjay, is the project sponsor. The project is to take 6 months to complete and POSS senior management has allocated a budget of about $250,000 to complete the project.
You now need to put together your project team and get to work on this high-visibility project. Top management has told you that you can hand pick your team. In addition, you will be working with several other companies on this project. Instead of developing all of the software yourselves, you'll use a Web-based application developed by ABC Co. Of course, you'll need to customize the application somewhat to meet requirements for this project. ABC Co.'s senior consultant, Julian, is your main contact with that company. You'll also be working with MarketRight, an Internet Marketing and Social Media consulting firm that will help you in determining user requirements and eveloping partnership programs. One of MarketRight's top consultants, May, and some of her colleagues will assist you. Initial estimates suggest that about half of the $250,000 budgeted for this project will go to hardware costs and the outsourced software and consulting services. You will need two information technology professionals, two marketing specialists, and one purchasing specialist on your internal project team. The draft scope statement that you have developed for the project is shown in the following page.