Suitability of

Information

Five Main Factors that contribute to the suitability of a piece of information:

• Accuracy• Relevance• Reliability and Bias• Timeliness• Appropriateness of presentation format

Accuracy• If a piece of information is inaccurate, it will not assist in solving information problems. Inaccuracies in information can result from a variety of factors.

Date Validation

Poor data validation contributes to inaccurate information because it is likely that the set of data being used will contain unreasonable data.

• Example: If an age field in a high school database was not range checked, then the database could store age data values that fell outside the range of 10 and 20 years old. Subsequent information that was not produced from the age data, such as statistics on the average age, would not be accurate if data had been entered outside the reasonable age range.

Inaccurate Data• Inaccurate but valid or reasonable data can be entered. A simple example of this is inaccurate data entered into a date-of-birth field. A person can write down a reasonable date of birth that is incorrect on a registration form or someone can mistakenly enter the date 1/12/1995 instead of 12/1/1995.

Incorrect Processing• Incorrect processing based on false premises or faulty logic can produce inaccurate information.

• This is a very complex area; the more lengthy and complex a computer solution, the more like it is that fault will occur in the logic of the processing.

• Testing must be rigorous, otherwise mistake can go undetected and organizations will make decision based on inaccurate information.

Incomplete Data • Incomplete data contributes to suitable or less that perfect information• Example: Let’s assume an organization wished to find out which sales region was most profitable, but, in the process of collecting data, they left out an entire sub-region.

Relevance• Computer-based information systems can produce a huge amount of information in a variety of formats.

• However, people in organization often require specific information.

• If information contains irrelevant material, this can detract from its suitability because it is difficult to interpret and understand.

• Example: If an organization wanted information related to product X, but was presented with information that mixed up details about products X, Y and Z, the organization would probably find the information less useful than information containing materials only about product X.

Reliability and Bias• Information must be reliable to be value; that is you need to be able to trust the meaning conveyed by the information.• One area that contributes directly to reliability is the bias associated with judgments contained in the information.

• Example: A poll that is trying to find out how people intend to vote could contain sample biases if the sampling strategy did not take into account all the different categories of voter. Likewise , options about the “goodness” of a product could be influenced by a person’s personal opinion. Book and film review are the good examples of the way people’s biases influence their conclusion.

Timeliness• Information that is not available when it is requested is usually not of much value, so it is unsuitable for the purpose it is intended: that is, in helping to make a decision that will solve a problem.

• Example: Assume you were the person responsible for buying in stock for sale in your company’s retail outlets. You are contacted by a manufacturer of an item sold by your organization, who say that if you order 2000 units of product X the next day, they will give you a 20 percent discount. If your stock inventory system cannot tell you whether 2000 units are needed within 24 hours, you will not be able to make an informed decision about whether to buy or not.

Appropriateness of presentation format

• The same information can be presented in a variety of ways. The traditional format of text and images are now competing with multimedia, such as the Internet, real-time sound and real-time video.

• When considering the appropriateness of a given format, one needs to take into account the nature of information and nature of the audience for which it is intended.

• Example: In section 1.4 it was suggested that senior managers quite often required highly summarized information showing future trends, and that operational managers required more tactical information that showed the way the organization was operating on a monthly basis.

The senior manager may require graphical information showing trends, as well as conclusions and recommendation. In contrast, the operational manager would require information showing monthly progress in relation to the monthly targets. Graphical information would still be appropriate but not the information related to trends and future possibilities.

Thank You !!!

Presented By:Alyssa Marie T. Paral

BLIS-III