A reagent management system is disclosed comprising a reagent container section for receiving reagent containers and a reagent reconstitution device for reconstituting dry, or lyophilized, reagents or concentrated reagents in reagent containers in order to carry out in-vitro diagnostic tests with the reconstituted reagents. A controller is programmed to instruct the reagent reconstitution device to automatically reconstitute an initial volume of a selected reagent type in reagent containers. The initial volume is calculated based on an open container stability time (OCS) of the reconstituted reagent type for each reagent container and on a number of tests to be carried out within the OCS of the reconstituted reagent type. A reagent container for use by the reagent management system and methods of automatically reconstituting a dry, or lyophilized reagent, or a concentrated liquid reagent in a reagent container to carry out an in-vitro diagnostic test with the reagent are disclosed.