A requirements elicitation process model for health management information systems: case of Kenyatta National Hospital

Abstract onlyRequirements Elicitation (RE) is about learning and understanding the needs of users and stakeholders with the aim of communicating these needs to the system developers. Requirements Elicitation is an important stage in Information Systems development (ISD), and has substantial impact on software costs.RE has remained a key topic of interest for researchers and they have stated that a large number of Information Systems development (ISD) projects fail resulting in high costs to organizations. One of the reasons that these projects fail is the inability of the Information System to precisely satisfy user 's requirements which is a result of inaccurate and incomplete requirements collected in the Requirements Elicitation (RE) stage. Considering the importance of the RE stage in information systems development projects , this stage therefore becomes a critical area for IS research. This research focused on the process of RE in the development of the Heath Management Information Systems (HMIS) in Kenyatta National Hospital. Using data collected from the developers and users in the hospital the study presents a Requirements Elicitation Process model for Health Management Information systems. The results showed that the greatest challenge in the RE process was communication and the study suggests requirements prototyping to solve communication challenges. The implementation was conducted in Kenyatta national Hospital 's Comprehensive care centre. In conclusion the study elaborates a RE model that incorporates communication and requirements prototyping as key elements in the model.Requirements Elicitation (RE) is about learning and understanding the needs of users and stakeholders with the aim of communicating these needs to the system developers. Requirements Elicitation is an important stage in Information Systems development (ISD), and has substantial impact on software costs.RE has remained a key topic of interest for researchers and they have stated that a large number of Information Systems development (ISD) projects fail resulting in high costs to organizations. One of the reasons that these projects fail is the inability of the Information System to precisely satisfy user 's requirements which is a result of inaccurate and incomplete requirements collected in the Requirements Elicitation (RE) stage. Considering the importance of the RE stage in information systems development projects , this stage therefore becomes a critical area for IS research. This research focused on the process of RE in the development of the Heath Management Information Systems (HMIS) in Kenyatta National Hospital. Using data collected from the developers and users in the hospital the study presents a Requirements Elicitation Process model for Health Management Information systems. The results showed that the greatest challenge in the RE process was communication and the study suggests requirements prototyping to solve communication challenges. The implementation was conducted in Kenyatta national Hospital 's Comprehensive care centre. In conclusion the study elaborates a RE model that incorporates communication and requirements prototyping as key elements in the model