IM PERCEPTION BEFORE SEMESTER
Before the semester, I had a different opinion and perception of IM. I thought that the information management only involved information from technological sources and the overall technological sector. I thought that the management of information involved only the management of information technology systems. I had several misconceptions and myths concerning information management. Firstly, I thought that the plans for disaster recovery were only for the firms with critical data. Moreover, I thought that the relational database models were the best models for the decision support systems of information management. Moreover, I thought that the dimensional data models only worked with specific domains and subject areas of information management. I also thought that the data warehouse performances were low if the information data was low. I thought that information management only involved management of technological information from technological sources.
IM PERCEPTION AFTER SEMESTER
However, now that I have completed my semester, I think differently from my initiatory point of view concerning IM. I have come to the realization that IM involves the collection and management of different forms of information from various sources and the continual distribution of that information to different audiences. This new thought is different from my initial perspective where I thought that IM only revolved around technology. I also think that management of information involves the control and management over information reporting, evaluating, processing, controlling, organization, structure, and planning. I also think that information management contains various complexities. The first complexities surface in the reduction of the processing needs of information, which include environmental management, creation of the slack resources and creation of the self-contained tasks. Another complexity of information management is increasing of the processing capacity of organizational information, which includes the creation of different lateral relations and the investment in diverse vertical systems of information technology. I also think that it is better to opt for optimal lowest levels of operational data in the dimensional models for data warehouses. I think that because it could be risky for the information management systems or an entire organization to have summarized data in warehouses without specific goals.
INFLUENCE OF ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY ASSIGNMENT ON MY IM UNDERSTANDING
The annotated bibliography assignment has increased my understanding of information management ways. Firstly, it enables me to realize that information management is not all about technological management of information but collection information from different sources and managing this information. That is; I had to source bibliographies from different sources including books and journals. Additionally, I had to manage the information by choosing the resources that were relevant to IM and placed them as my annotated bibliographies in that assignment. By so doing, I enhanced my understanding of IM through practical integration. Additionally, I had to follow the instructions of the assignment by structuring and organizing my sources as an annotated bibliography. As such, I understood that management of information requires such aspects as structuring, organizing and reporting of information to meet the requirements of the objectives of the clients or recipients of that information. The assignment also increased my understanding of IM by giving me background information on IM. That is, in choosing the bibliographies I had to read the sources to come with relevant annotated bibliographies only. As such, I had some background information concerning IM.
INFLUENCE OF APPLIED ASSIGNMENT ON MY IM UNDERSTANDING
The applied assignment also increased my understanding of IM. Firstly, I had to discuss the information management of Queensland Health, which is a public hospital regarding the incorporation Information Management Strategy in the daily operations of that organization. The information enhanced my understanding of IM because I practically came up with a project plan for the hospital. The assignment majorly enhanced my understanding of all the aspects of managing information including planning, structuring, organizing, evaluating and reporting to meet the requirements of the assignment. Under planning, I had to figure out different ways of how to come up with a viable project. After coming up with a plan for the project, I had to structure and organize the project plan appropriately. I started from the executive summary, the introduction, the audit methodology, the Queensland Health Audit, the analysis and evaluation, the recommendations and the conclusions. Under evaluation, I had to form a conceptual structure of SWOT analysis and SWOT analysis. For the reporting, I had to submit my finished assignment. This assignment took me through almost all steps of information management from planning to report.
PARALLELS IN THE ASSIGNMENTS
The two assignments had various parallels. Firstly, both assignments required following of a certain structure and organization. For an annotated bibliography assignment, I had to source for resources from different sources including books and journals concerning IM. For the applied assignment, I had to structure my project plan in a logic way. In the structure, I started from the executive summary, the introduction, the audit methodology, the Queensland Health Audit, the analysis and evaluation, the recommendations and the conclusions. Additionally, both assignments required proper planning before working on the requirements of those assignments.
KEY DIFFERENCE IN THE ASSIGNMENTS
The key difference in the assignments is their influence on my IM understanding. The annotated bibliography assignment enabled me to realize that information management involves the collection of information from different sources and managing that information because I had to locate various bibliographies from different resources. On the other hand, the applied assignment practically made me go through most of the steps of managing information from planning to report.
MY STRENGTHS IN THE ASSESSMENT ITEMS
For the academic assessment, my strengths were sourcing for the bibliographies. I wanted to employ management information to collect the bibliographies from different sources concerning information management. For the applied assessment, my strength was in organizing and structuring the information for the project plan. I structured my project plan in a logical and flowing manner to enable for easy understanding and meeting of requirements for the assessment.
WHAT TO WORK ON
I have different things to work on next time and when I join the profession myself. Firstly, I will evaluate all concepts of IM to promote my understanding of IM. Since, the two assessments only enabled me to understand that IM encompasses collection of information from various sources and the stages of managing information from planning to report, I will seek for more information on IM. I will also work on analyzing the IM complexities including the reduction of the IM processing needs. That is the relation between IM and environmental management, slack resources and self-contained risks. Another IM complexity I will work on is analyzing the processing capacity of organizational information.
