Requirements management: keeping your technology acquisition project under control

Whether you are acquiring clinical or business information systems, patient monitoring systems, or therapeutic and diagnostic systems, the odds are good that the project will be delivered late, will cost far more than predicted, and will not provide all the features promised. The principal reason for project failure is improper management of the requirements of the system. Requirements engineering and management is a skill from the systems engineering profession that can be learned by nearly any professional who is managing a technology acquisition project. The author discusses what requirements engineering and management is and how it is done.