You are employed by a local computer manufacturer as a senior analyst. Part of your job is to provide documentation on the information systems they use, including guidance on the information needed by the organisation and the systems. You are required to update the guidance on information – thi...
UNIT 3 - HOW ORGANISATIONS USE
BUSINESS INFORMATION
CONTENTS
What is information? ........................................................................................................................... 1
Where it is used ................................................................................................................................... 3
Purpose of Information ....................................................................................................................... 3
Information flows ................................................................................................................................ 4
Characteristics of good information .................................................................................................... 5
How an organization could improve quality of its business information .............................................. 6
WHAT IS INFORMATION?
Data:
Data is the raw ingredients, which have not yet been processed and is turned into meaningful statistics.
It can consist of facts; in the form of numbers, words, observations, measurements or anything. The
data can be re-used for a set of different purposes. For example, in ornithology when the scientists
collect the measurements from a bird’s wing and writes down the length, the number is in its raw form.
The rest of this data can be used to give information on length of the species of bird.
Information:
Information is the data that is organized and given context to the observer. It can be used to effectively
give new knowledge or influence a decision to the observer. For example, when the students take an
exam, the results of the data can be put into the system and the end result would be the grade that the
student has been given like a D or an F. Information can also influence an opinion using data as raw
facts, such as in politics where the speaker can use their information to gain supporters.
Qualitative data:
Qualitative data is a collection of thoughts, observations, opinions or words that can be collated in
many different ways. This type of data is not something that can be measured or calculated and is
useful for studies on a small, individual scale to look in depth of the data. This type of data can be
collected by online forums, surveys, focus groups or interviews. Some examples of qualitative data can
be colour of your skin, the softness of a cats coat or an appearance of a piece of fruit.
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