Business Requirements in Supply Change Management - Assignment Example

Business Requirements Reference number: Document Control Change Record Version Change Reference Reviewers Position Table of Contents Document Control 2 1Business Requirements 4 1.1Project Overview 4 1.2Background including current process 4 1.3Scope 5 1.3.1Scope of Project 5 Constraints 10 1.3.2Constraints and Assumptions 10 1.3.3Risks 10 1.3.4Scope Control 11 1.3.5Relationship to Other Systems/Projects 12 1 Business Requirements 1.1 Project Overview This project involves identifying the various business requirements that are needed by the company as it prepares to become a multinational. The specific objective is to develop and come up with and effective and efficient supply chain management system that allows for sharing of information between the company and its retailers. 1.2 Background including current process The current supply chain management system that is being used by the company does not allow for connection and communication between the retailers and the sales department. This therefore means that a lot of paper work and time is wasted between order time and delivery time. In addition to that, lorry space is at times wasted supplying products that are not required by the retailer. This has therefore necessitated the need to provide for a way of sharing real tine information between retailers and the supply team. This project is a supply chain management initiative that connects stores deliveries with the back end system of the business. The supply chain management system that is being developed is aimed at connecting the business and the retailers in order to improve supply visibility, allow for improved planning and reduce chances of unwanted deliveries to the retailers. In addition to that, the project is aimed at cutting paper works and ensuring that settlements are made in the right manner with the aim of reducing waste of space in the delivery lorries and trucks. The role of the IT department in this project is to help in selecting and developing software that will improve the efficiency of the company’s supply chain and to determine the hardware requirements for the proposed software. In addition to that, the supply IT department will also be tasked with handling data integration issues which include provision of functionalities to mobile workers so that the data that is entered into the mobile devices that they use are automatically transferred and synchronized to the back end applications in the company headquarter offices. 1.3 Scope 1.3.1 Scope of Project The scope of this project that is being undertaken includes several areas. The main areas that fall within the scope of this particular project include: Applications In order to meet the target production date, only these applications will be implemented: 1. Data retrieval from the retailers and the supply system 2. Sending data to the supply and retailer systems Sites These sites are considered part of the implementation: 1. Sales and Supply department, the accounts department and the warehousing department and the IT department 2. The retail outlets that are distributed in all the areas where the business will be operating Process Re-engineering Re-engineering will be done to attain 1. Static requirement of the new system which will include the terminals that are required and supported, the number of users both at the retailer end and the back end system. There will also be re engineering to allow for handling of increased volume of data since the company will require more retailers as it expands (Ross, 2010). 2. Dynamic requirements such as the number of tasks that will be processed by the system both at peak hours of operation and during the off-peak hours Customization Customizations will be limited to the Sales department data entry system so as it can be able to send information directly to the retailers and also the receive information from the retailers and the delivery teams. The system sales and supply department main system will be customized so as to be able to receive data from multiple retail sources and to respond in real time. Interfaces The interfaces that are required to integrate other systems already in use by the company with the system that is being designed will majorly include UWHires package interfaces with Pub Cookie and ODS, HEPPS system interfaces with Budget system and the supply system. Architecture Application and Technical Architecture that will be implemented for the new supply management system will be cloud based master product database (Solokov & Ivanov, 2010) .The system will also have a centralized and standardized data transfer and maintenance that allow the retailers to share information with the end users in the supply team. The centralized and standardized architecture will facilitate uploading and downloading of supply and sale information. Conversion Only the following data and volume will be considered for conversion: 1. The input figures that are entered to the mobile device by the retailers 2. The input data that is entered into the system by the sales department or the delivery team. 3. Ongoing data from interfaced systems will also be converted depending on the nature in which the data is need in the system. Testing In this project, testing of the new supply chain management system will be done on the movement of data from the retailers to the sales department as well as the real time data that is sent from the supply department to the retailers. Funding The funding for this project will be limited to the budget that are provided by the company for the specific task of identifying the business requirement for going multinational. The project will therefore work within the budget that will be given by the company management. Training Training will be will be required for the Supply team steam and the retailers. Moreover, the IT department staff shall also require training on how to maintain the system and when to carry out the maintenance work on the new supply chain management system database (Solokov & Ivanov, 2010). Education In order to fully understand the operation of the new system, the supply department will be educated on the functioning of the new system. The will be enlightened both on the hardware to be used and on the software. Constraints 1.3.2 Constraints and Assumptions The following constraints have been identified: The first constraint is the parallel operation with the old systems during the initial months of implementation of the new system. hardware and software limitations Design security requirements Tracing of data that moves between the retailers and the supply department team. Cost The following assumptions have been made in defining the scope, objectives and approach: the availability of all the equipment that is needed: both hardware and software the workers in the supply and sales department have expertise on the new integrated system that will be designed Funding will be available 1.3.3 Risks The following risks have been identified as possibly affecting the project during its progression: Interception of data as it moves from the retailers to the supply department and from the sales department to the various company retailers Cyber attack both to the retailer side system and to the sales and supply department system New legislations limiting the use of the technology Insufficient funding for the entire project from initiation, development, implementation and transition. 1.3.4 Scope Control The control of changes to the scope identified in this document will be managed through the Change Control, with business owner representative approval for any changes that affect cost or timeline for the project. Managing the scope will be done using several ways in order to avoid scope creep. The first way though which this will be done in this project will involve reviewing of the vision of the project which is to develop a system that connect the retailers and the sales and supply team so as to reduce the time and money spent in sharing information between the two parties. The second way in which the scope will be controlled will be through setting priorities in the project. In this project, the top priority is communication and sharing of information between the sales department and the retailers via a mobile platform database (Solokov & Ivanov, 2010). This will be the main focus and priority. Other considerations such as tracking the information and security shall be considered as the project goes on after the top priority has been achieved. The third way of controlling the scope will be by breaking down of the project work into different units. This will be done to separate the top priorities from the rest. A schedule of work will also be created to ensure that there is no deviation from the stated scope (Ross, 2010). 1.3.5 Relationship to Other Systems/Projects It is the responsibility of the business unit to inform IT of other business initiatives that may impact the project. The following are known business initiatives: Increased production to meet increase demands Compliance with the laws of the country or state Promotional activities aimed and popularizing the products both at the company level and at the retail level Incorporation of new retailers into the company supply chain during the expansion process Reduction in the number of retailers in response to various business needs in the country of operation Increase in the number of back end users in the sales and supply department References Sharma, A. (2012). Business requirement document overview. Retrieved from http://expertbusinessanalyst.com/business-requirements-document-an-overview/ Ross, F. (2010). Introduction to Supply Chain Technologies. New York: CRC. Solokov, B & Ivanov, D. (2010). Supply Chain Management. St Petersburg. Springer. Read More