Defining Information Management Requirements

Computers were first used commercially for numeric processing, for example, tabulating a sequence of numbers. Later, computers became widely used in transaction processing (e.g., in order entry systems), as well as for results reporting to and from the lab. Computers currently are used extensively to perform even more complex types of processing. For example, by using tables of rules to analyze data, they can help people use information to make higher level decisions. As a result, the manipulations that computers perform on data are becoming increasingly intricate. The people who build or buy computer systems must have an accurate understanding of end-user requirements for the system. It is during a Requirements Definition phase that these requirements are determined.