PMP · Question #913
A company is looking to adopt a new software solution to align business processes across multiple business units using a technology that was never used in the organization. What should the project…
The correct answer is D. Conflicting priorities and business requirements. When introducing a new, organization-wide software solution involving unfamiliar technology, the project manager must primarily focus on reconciling diverse and potentially conflicting requirements from multiple business units.
Question
A company is looking to adopt a new software solution to align business processes across multiple business units using a technology that was never used in the organization. What should the project manager focus on?
Options
- ANew system and the likelihood of technical debt
- BSpecific requirements for important departments
- COut-of-scope requirements across the organization
- DConflicting priorities and business requirements
How the community answered
(35 responses)- A23% (8)
- B6% (2)
- C14% (5)
- D57% (20)
Why each option
When introducing a new, organization-wide software solution involving unfamiliar technology, the project manager must primarily focus on reconciling diverse and potentially conflicting requirements from multiple business units.
While technical debt is a concern with new technology, the immediate focus for aligning processes across multiple units is defining and harmonizing the functional requirements, not solely the technical implementation debt.
Focusing only on 'important departments' might neglect the needs of other units, leading to resistance and failure to achieve organization-wide process alignment, which is the stated goal.
Out-of-scope requirements should generally be avoided, not focused on, to prevent scope creep, especially in a complex project with new technology across an organization.
With a new solution affecting multiple business units and using new technology, disparate business units will likely have varying and possibly conflicting priorities and requirements. The project manager must prioritize resolving these conflicts to ensure the solution aligns with the overarching organizational goals and gains broad adoption.
Concept tested: Stakeholder management and requirements elicitation
Source: https://www.pmi.org/pmbok-guide-standards/foundational/pmbok/stakeholder-engagement
Topics
Community Discussion
5
Wei W.Jun 7, 2026D is the call here. When you are aligning processes across multiple business units, the real challenge is never the new technology itself but reconciling the conflicting priorities and business requirements of each unit into a coherent working increment.
Anjali D.Jun 18, 2026Our group landed on D after a long debate. The key phrase is "align business processes across multiple business units" because when you try to standardize across departments that have always done things their own way, conflicting priorities are guaranteed. A few of us got pulled toward B since gathering requirements from important departments sounds like standard PM practice, but that misses the bigger organizational alignment issue the question is really asking about. Anyone else think the "never used technology" detail is a bit of a distraction?
Yusuf A.May 23, 2026Picked D. When every business unit wants something different, the real battle is priorities. Does anyone know if PMP treats organizational change management as part of this or is it purely requirements alignment?
Zlatan X.Jun 28, 2026D is correct here because cross-unit adoption with unfamiliar tech means the real challenge lives at the interdependency layer, where conflicting business priorities surface during benefits realization. Anyone else find it odd that A gets framed as a single-project concern when technical debt actually cascades across the entire program portfolio?
Orla P.May 28, 2026D is correct here because when you are aligning processes across multiple business units, the biggest challenge is always reconciling competing priorities, not the technology itself. The "never used technology" detail is a distractor meant to pull you toward A, but the real risk in a multi-unit rollout is getting the business requirements to play nice together. Anyone have a clean way to remember when the PM should focus on organizational alignment versus technical debt in these cross-functional scenarios?