Write Fleet Capability Into the Product Requirements
Fleet Management Requirements Checklist
Companion to Medical Device Connectivity · Updated 2026-09-29
Use this when writing product requirements, so fleet capability ships with the device. Product managers and systems engineers own it, with field service; “Manufacturers Should Build Devices to Be Managed as a Fleet” works it on the smart infusion pump fleet.
The Fleet Management Requirements Checklist: what the product must do so an institution can run all its units as one fleet.
| Requirement | Pass when | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Discovery | The institution can find every unit on its network, including units in storage or out for repair, and match it to an inventory record. | |
| Inventory | Each unit reports its identity, model, hardware revision, installed software and configuration versions (not just the versions it was sent), location, and last check-in time in a form the computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) can take in. | |
| Provisioning | A new unit joins the fleet with its identity, certificates, and configuration without hand entry at the device. | |
| Configuration | The institution can set, compare, and restore configuration across units, and the device records every change. | |
| Policy | The institution can apply a policy (drug library, alarm limits, imaging protocols, security settings) to a group of units at once. | |
| Certificate rotation | Certificates renew before they expire, without taking units out of service. | |
| Updates | The institution can see which units need which update and schedule each installation. | |
| Staged rollout | An update can go to a named subset first, with a hold point before the rest of the fleet. | |
| Rollback | Any unit can return to a previous signed, authorized release, and the fleet view shows that it did. | |
| Maintenance | Maintenance status and service history are readable per unit and can feed the CMMS. | |
| Vulnerability response | The institution can list every unit affected by a vulnerability within the fleet view. | |
| Retirement | A unit leaves the fleet with its data retrieved, its data removed, and its certificates revoked. |
Each unit must also expose these through a documented interface, so healthcare technology management and field service can support it without walking to it:
- Health and performance
- Logs
- Configuration and software version
- Connectivity state and synchronization state
- Self-test results
- Storage condition
- Security events
When the product doesn’t meet a requirement, staff at every customer site do that work by hand, often in a spreadsheet; “Devices That Can’t Report Cost Hospitals Staff Time That Budgets Miss” describes that work. Every unchecked item goes on the roadmap with a date, or into the documentation as a known gap.