The Product Buyer is the primary stakeholder and subject matter expert for inventory management. To build an effective forecasting model, it is crucial to first understand the existing processes, data points, business rules, and pain points directly from the individual responsible for making purchasing decisions based on inventory levels. The Product Buyer's input is fundamental to defining the functional requirements and ensuring the final analytic application is relevant and useful for its intended purpose. This user-centric approach aligns with modern business intelligence project methodologies.

B. SQL Developer: This is a technical role. They are consulted after business requirements are defined to determine technical feasibility and implementation details, not to establish the initial business needs.

C. Vice President of Marketing: While marketing may have an interest in inventory, they are a secondary stakeholder. Their requirements are not as central to the core function of inventory forecasting as the Product Buyer's.

D. Chief Information Officer: The CIO is the project sponsor who has already defined the high-level strategic goal (forecasting inventory). They are not the source for detailed, operational-level requirements.

1. Qlik Official Documentation: The Qlik Sense Business Analyst certification curriculum emphasizes a user-centric approach to requirements gathering. The process involves identifying key business users to understand their needs, decisions, and questions. In this scenario, the Product Buyer is the key business user.

Source: Qlik Education, "Qlik Sense Business Analyst Certification Study Guide," (QSBA2024). Section: "Identify Requirements," subsection on "Stakeholder Analysis." (Note: This is a representative reference based on the official curriculum's principles).

2. Academic Publication: Requirements engineering for business intelligence (BI) systems prioritizes deep engagement with business users who possess domain expertise. These users are critical for defining the analytical requirements and key performance indicators (KPIs).

Source: Wixom, B. H., & Watson, H. J. (2010). The BI-Based Organization. International Journal of Business Intelligence Research (IJBIR), 1(1), 13-28. In the section "A Framework for Business Intelligence," the authors emphasize the need to start with business needs and involve key business users from the outset.

3. University Courseware: Project management and systems analysis coursework consistently teaches that requirements gathering must begin with the primary end-users of the proposed system to ensure it solves the correct business problem.

Source: MIT OpenCourseWare, "15.561 Information Systems: Theory and Practice," Lecture Notes on "Requirements Analysis." The notes stress the importance of identifying and interviewing primary users (those who will directly interact with the system) to elicit detailed functional requirements.