Essay
Unit 3 P2 Discuss the characteristics of good information.
- Module
- Unit 3 - Information Systems
- Institution
- Pearson (PEARSON)
P2 Discuss the characteristics of good information
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Characteristics of Good InformationValid: Valid information is correct and often very reliable and because of this it can be used for the
purpose that the user requires it for. For example, a company needs valid info to help them keep
track of stock. Also a company would need valid info for presentations. Presentations would need
valid info because it’s discussing a project etc. and if any invalid info is included, it might lead to
the stakeholders etc. not supporting the company.
Reliable: Reliable information is information which someone has received from an information
source which they can trust to be accurate, correct, useful, but generally valid information. Reliable
information is trustworthy info. It comes from a source of authority and has no faults/errors. An
example of this is information that comes from a trusted and reliable source, such as information
from university studies/experiments as the information as it’s directly from experts in that field and
based upon facts. Example of non-reliable information is when the information comes from
Wikipedia as anyone can freely edit information on Wikipedia pages which makes it unreliable
Timely: For the information to be good info it needs to be timely as this allows it to stay up to date
and not go out dated, which could possibly make it incorrect. An example of untimely information
would be sales figures for a company from 10 years ago as they are dated and can’t be put to any
real use at the current time. Also timely info is info that is recent and accurately based on the time it
was recorded. An example of timely information would be current sales figures for a company as
they are recent and can be put to use well.
Fit for Purpose: For information to be good it needs to be fit for the purpose which means it would
it’s relevant for what you need it for. Example of information that’s fit for the purpose it’s needed
for is, Looking at information of an area’s population before opening a shop in that area. As it could
impact on the decision to build a shop as it would be best to build it in the place with a high
population and more potential customers. Information that is not fit for your purpose would not
benefit you at all for that specific purpose. An example of this is information about the most popular
songs of 2013 before opening up a shop. This wouldn’t benefit a decision in any way and is totally
irrelevant and unfit for your purpose of opening up a shop.
Accessible: To have good information it should be easy to access at any time as people might need
information at a certain time or need it by a deadline, and if they can’t get that information before
they need it then there would be in trouble. It’s important for information to be accessible because
if the information was inaccessible then it could effect a company’s decision. An example of
information that is easy to access is information about the weather, as it can be accessed from the
internet on many different devices such as computers and smart phones etc. an example of
information that isn’t easy to access is military information because it’s not available for the public,
which makes it difficult to access it unless I was military personnel.
Cost Effective: For the information to be good it has to also be cost effective. For example,
information that is worth time and money to obtain such as a survey for a company. if the survey
cost £500 to complete and the company gained a profit of £1000, then that would be cost effective
as they have made back what it cost to complete the survey and made more on top of that.
However, if they didn’t make a profit from the survey then that wouldn’t be cost effective
information as it cost them more to complete the survey.
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