Follow Us on Google
By Asmau Tijjani
Ogochukwu Gold Abaneme, a program manager in the healthcare industry, has examined how emerging technologies are changing the way technology projects are planned, defined and delivered.
In her recent piece on emerging trends and project requirements, Abaneme argued that rapid technological development was making it increasingly difficult for project teams to maintain fixed objectives and requirements throughout the lifespan of a project.
According to her, emerging trends do not simply introduce new features into technology projects but can fundamentally alter the requirements on which such projects are based.
She wrote, “Emerging trends do not merely add features to a project’s technical environment; they fundamentally destabilise the requirement-setting process itself.”
Abaneme, who leads medium- to large-scale technology projects in the healthcare sector, drew on her professional experience to explain the challenges created by rapidly changing technologies.
Her experience includes directing enterprise-wide budget system modernisations, coordinating Agile sprints for clinical simulation rollouts and delivering Electronic Health Record implementations with 95 per cent schedule adherence.
She noted that unclear objectives could make the development of technology systems particularly difficult, stressing that project teams must be prepared to continuously review their requirements as circumstances change.
Abaneme also examined the disruptive nature of emerging technologies, noting that innovation could come not only from entirely new inventions but also from the creative repurposing of existing technologies.
“Developing such systems becomes difficult when objectives are unclear,” she stated, adding that project teams should view their technological environments as active variables rather than fixed backgrounds.
Her research also considered the wider socioeconomic consequences of emerging technologies, particularly their effects on organisations, institutions, industries and knowledge creation. She argued that technologies such as artificial intelligence could change stakeholder expectations, risk levels and governance requirements in sectors such as healthcare.
One of the projects she is currently working on is the Maine Island Resiliency App, a predictive artificial intelligence mobile solution designed for isolated coastal communities, which she has shepherded from concept to a patent-pending prototype. Abaneme’s international education and professional experience across Nigeria, Ireland and the United States has also informed her approach to managing complex projects across different regulatory and organisational environments.
Ultimately, Abaneme called for project teams to stop treating requirements as fixed documents and instead see them as living systems that must respond to changing technological environments.
The researcher argued that adapting to technological change would be essential for successful project delivery in an increasingly complex environment.
