Unit 3 Assignment 1 P2

Unit 3 P2

Characteristics of good information

P2.1

Briefly explain all the characteristics of good information

Valid

First off there is valid information.  This information is information that can be proven to be correct and can be used to help you for the purpose that you intend.  This can be useful information because when this information is presented to you it is obvious that it is correct so that means that you can use it with confidence.  An example of this is when a doctor finds out a patient’s blood pressure they know it is valid data which can be used to give the patient a good course of action.   

Reliable

Next up is reliable information.  This type of information may sound much like the previous type of information on first glance because they are both types of information that can be proven to be correct and they both come from a valid source however the big difference between the two is that valid information is information that was gathered correctly whereas reliable information is information that is correct when compared to other sources.  An example of reliable information is when a company’s financial department sends its findings to the big boss.

Timely

Next is timely information.  Basically this type of information is information that is observed over a long stretch of time.  The amount of time and the schedule of when to look at the information may vary on the type of research at hand.  A good example of this type of information is when someone goes to the hospital or accident and emergency or to their local GP they might receive a follow up appointment.    

Fit-for-purpose

After timely information we now have fit-for purpose information.  If a piece of information is fit-for-purpose then it means that it is relevant to what you are doing.  A good example of fit-for-purpose is if you were opening a business in London then it would be advisable to look at the population within a certain area beside where you wanted to open the business.

Accessible

Next is accessible information.  Accessible information is information that is stored in a way that it can be easily accessed at any time meaning that it is easy to find and it doesn't take forever going through folders to find the information that is required.  This type of information is an important characteristic of good information as users need to have information available to them as and when they need it.  An example of this characteristic is when you have your folders on your computer in an organised way then all your school/work folders have other folders inside them about the work you are ether doing or have already done.   

Cost-effective

Up next is cost-effective information.  Cost effective information is information that is worth investing the time and money to get to help make business decisions.  This can be an effective method of finding the information that is required for anyone to complete a task simply because it is information that is relatively cheap but it can be and most of the time worth their asking price. As an example, if you paid a company to do a survey for you and it cost £1000 and you were then able to use the information supplied to increase your profits by £1500 in the next month then this could be seen as cost effective information.

Sufficiently accurate

Accurate information helps businesses make the correct decisions when faced with either an option or a dilemma.  This can help due to it being accurate enough for the job at hand. A couple of good examples of this type of information is if speedometer in your car was out by 20 mph then this information may result in you breaking the law and if a sales department sent inaccurate sales figures to the finance department this might result in incorrect tax calculations for the company that would put them in danger.

Relevant

Relevant information is information that is directly related to your business or school need(s).  This can be related to the fit-for- purpose information that I have mentioned beforehand in that it is information that is suited to the work that you are doing.  A couple of good examples of this type of information are a business was looking to cut costs they might look at their electricity bill and try to see where they could save money and a bakery was looking at the price of metal then this would not really be relevant information to their business.  

Right level of detail

If someone requests information from you having the correct level of detail is very important because information requires a certain level of detail.  The reason why this is important is because when it is too detailed then it will take forever for anyone to get through it but if is not detailed enough then the information will not teach you enough.  For example, if a manager wants a summary the sales figures for the last 6 months, then the information that has the right level of detail might show the overall sales figures for each month and the grand total added together.  

Confidence in source

Obtaining information for a business or school work purpose means that you must obtain it from a reliable and trust worthy source.  This means that the user knows where the information is from and they know that it is reliable in its nature.  A good example of information that you are confident in source about is If you wanted information about the population of Korea then using Wikipedia might not be seen as being 100% reliable and you may not be 100% confident in using this source. However, if you looked at the census information from the Korean Government you could say what the population was at the time that the census was taken. 

Understandable by user

Information that is used for a business purpose needs to be understandable by the end user.  This is highly important because if you have collected information from several sources then in the end you don’t want to be turned down because the person marking or reviewing it doesn't understand it.  A good example of information that is understandable by the user(s) is if one of your bosses wanted information about the sales for the last 3 years and you presented them with a complex set of figures taken from a database with no clear totals then they would not understand it. However, if you knew exactly what they wanted you might present them with an easy to read graph with clear instructions on the totals sales for each of the last 3 years.

P2.2

Explain which 3 characteristics you feel are the most important, and say why 

Timely information in more detail

Like I said before on the brief explanation of timely information this is basically information that you look at for over a period of time in order to find information via the tests that you are performing and that the time it takes to get this information depends on what type of test you are doing.  However what I didn't say in great detail was how there can be positives and negatives with this type of information.  The positives are that you get a very detailed result and that it can be reliable and relevant however the negatives of timely information are that they can sometimes take a very long time to gather and when you are on the last minute they are of no use.    

Fit-for-purpose information in more detail

As I did with the timely information I have decide to give this type of data another explanation in more detail.  As I said before in the non-detailed version of fit-for-purpose information I briefly explained that if a piece of information is fit-for-purpose then it means that it is relevant to what you are doing but I never really went over the positives and negatives of it so here I go.  The positives are that because the information is fit-for-purpose you know for a fact that it will be suitable for your work and if you follow it then you should get your point across however the level of quality and detail might waver meaning that you will need to find more elsewhere.

Cost-effective information in more detail

And now we come to the last of the last of my list, I might have explained this one but I think it needs more of a description.  Though I have said it beforehand I will tell you again that Cost effective information is information that is worth investing the time and money to get to help make business decisions and that it can be an effective method of finding the information that is required for anyone to complete a task simply because it is information that is relatively cheap but it can be and most of the time worth their asking price.  However I still need to mention the other positive and the two negatives that I found.  First the other positive is that they are quite easy to find making them accessible as well however the two negatives are that sometimes the information is a dud (fake) and sometimes the asking price can be way too high for its value.