A billion-dollar retailer with 400+ stores finds that it cannot move fast enough to beat the competition. The organizations senior management arrives at the conclusion that it would be easier to achieve the strategic goals enumerated by the board of the directors if the various organizational functions would share information. Shared information would enable them to develop and deploy new actions and tactics more quickly. The CEO and the president have therefore ordered the major functions to immediately update their information systems so that data sharing is possible. The senior vice presidents (SVPs) of accounting and human resources immediately decide that the only integrated database application, or modules that carry out the most common business functions, including human resources, general ledger, accounts payable, accounts receivable, order management, inventory control, and customer relationship management. To speed the installation along, they will install it using a rapid implementation methodology that a company down the street used. The goal is to have the new systems operational in nine months.

First Steps

Shortly after this decision is made, the SVP of HR calls you into his office and tells you that you will be the management sponsor for this project. You have to decide on everything. You sit back in your nice office and think:

It shouldnt be difficult to select a vendor and then borrow the methodology from down the street. It worked for them; it should work for us! Well call a few vendors in the morning and find out about cost, time frame, and implementation methods. In the meantime, I should find out a little more about how to do this and who will be using it. I remember from my information systems class in college that this is a reasonable first step when it comes to buying software.

what questions do you have to assess the feasibility of the project?