Reliable Pharmaceutical Service plans to develop an extranet that enables its client health-care facilities to order drugs and supplies as if they were ordering from an internal pharmacy. The extranet should enable Reliables suppliers to function as if they were part of Reliables internal organization. These views of the final system have significant implications for defining system requirements and for gathering information about those requirements

1. What information-gathering methods are most appropriate to learn about requirements from Reliables own management staff and other employees? From client health-care organizations? From suppliers?

2. Should patients in client health-care facilities participate in the information-gathering process? If so, why, and in what ways should they participate?

3. With respect to gathering information from suppliers and clients, how deeply within those organizations should systems analysts look when defining requirements? How might Reliable deal with supplier and client reluctance to provide detailed information about their internal operations?

4. For which user community or communities (internal, supplier, or client) are prototypes likely to be most beneficial? Why?