Liam
Latto Unit 3 P2 - Discuss the characteristics of good information
2.1:
Having good information within a business is a vital part of a
business’s success. There are different ways that good information is achieved
and some of these are accurate and reliable information that a business can
use. I will explain how some characteristics will improve how people judge
information.
Valid Information:
For all information to be successful then it has to be correct otherwise
people may spread around false information and that could be bad for the
business. For it to also be valid it should be easy to understand for a reader
to see. Any invalid information would be useless to a reader of the
information. An example of valid information would be a news service. They need
to keep updating constantly and make sure that they use information that they
are sure is correct.
Reliable Information:
For information to be reliable then you need to make sure that the
information is from good source. If you got information from an unreliable
source then you will not be very good at giving out information to other people
as you are spreading round false information.
Timely Information:
Timely is an important characteristic of good information. Information
is important and it needs to make sure that you know that it is useful in the
present and not in the past or future. For example, a business would use
current sale figures to work out the current profit/loss they are making or
losing. They will use data that they have collected within possibly a week and
not a long time ago.
Fit-for-purpose Information:
The information that you will collect will also need to be useful to
your needs. For example if you collect information and you don’t use it then it
won’t be fit for purpose. For example, if someone got a spreadsheet of a list
of numbers with sale figures on it then the data would not be fit for purpose
as they would not know what to do with it.
Accessible Information:
Accessible information is information that you can store away and access
it at another time or when you next require it. For example, a business would
use timely information to look at sale figures however they may put 4 weeks’
worth of sale figures away and they can then access the information when they
next require it.
Cost-effective Information:
In a lot of situations a business may want to get information from other
businesses. An example of this may be a business buying information from
another business around the area to see what works well for them to improve
general sales. They are usually sold in forms such as surveys.
Sufficiently
accurate Information:
It is very
important that information needs to be accurate otherwise it is useless to the
reader. You need to make sure that information is reliable and correct so that
it is useful. If you provide incorrect information then this could lead to poor
decision making by a company.
Relevant
Information:
It is one of
the most important features that you need to make sure that information is
relevant to your purpose. An example of relevant information is making sure
that you look at present data and make sure that it is useful to the business.
Right
level of detail Information:
In any form
of data and information collection it is very important that you make sure that
it has correct spelling and grammar so that you can read and understand the
information. It is also important that you don’t go over the top when it comes
down to marking information. You don’t want to write too much detail but you
also don’t want to write not a lot of detail it is about finding the right
balance.
Confidence
in source Information:
In my
opinion, this is one of the most important characteristics of good information
because if your sources are not reliable then the information and data you are
using is a waste of time. You need to ensure that the information collected is
from a trusty and reliable source that you know is 100% accurate.
Understandable
by user Information:
Information
is only useful if another user of that information can fully understand what it
means. You need to ensure that if you are passing data on to someone else that
you mark information and make sure that you can understand it yourself. This is
a crucial characteristic because if they can’t understand the information then
it is redeemed useless.
2.2:
Obviously, when it comes down to the characteristics of information some are more important than others, There are some that make information useless if it didn't contain some of its information.
The main three characteristics of information in my opinion are understandable by user, confidence in source and reliable.
Making sure that the information is readable for the user because if it wasn't readable then the information would be useless. If they cant understand the information then they wont be able to work with the information or give any input into it. Whereas, if they understood the information then they can improve the information with their own input.
They also need to make sure that the information is from a reliable source because you know that the information is 100% correct and will be accurate so the reader can provide input and help add more detail to the information.
Finally, they also need to make sure that the information is reliable because if the information is not reliable then you would be sending information that may not be correct and the reader would recognise this. This would cause unrest with the reader as they are not able use it as it was from an unreliable source.
