English: What Are The Necessary Data Characteristics?
Each and every aspect of data is what is being to get some tangible information, nonetheless, if data is inaccurate, therefore the information becomes inaccurate and very misleading. A good and sound information cannot be conceived from an inaccurate date; that remains a fact. More often than not, will you form people engaging in work-rounds just with one simple thing in mind; to avoid inaccurate data. However, organizations needs accurate information to make sound and more valid decisions pertaining to their activities. An organization cannot conduct its activities well without proper and above all, accurate information. Sound information is a major driver towards proper planning and future forecasting. After all, all Information Systems needs accurate data to be valid and operation able. The following are some of the necessary data characteristics.
A good and sound information can only be conceived from a correct, accurate and very complete data; it cannot be any meaningful if information is conceived from an incomplete, misleading and incorrect set of data pieces; that’s quite absurd and is likely to mislead the users and plunge any organization into failure. Failure is a consequence of poor planning; however, good plans can only be made from sound and accurate information. A good information should be processed correctly, using conventional tools and as per everyone’s expectation. Businesses greatly rely on their information systems in order to make certain crucial decisions.
It’s therefore very necessary for the data being fed into the Information Systems to be very accurate since businesses heavily rely on their Information Systems. Several scholars have continuously argued that an Information System function can relatively develop a bad reputation in an Enterprise when it is believed to be dispensing inaccurate information. There is some logic behind it; an Information System is believed to an organization’s information bank, when it gives out misleading information, then none can ever believe in any information got from that system. In such a scenario, the information systems becomes a waste of money and time for an organization.
Timely.
A good information relies on timely data; a timely data is that which is available for its intended purpose in good time. It’s not logical to receive data that its time of need has already elapsed; it’s very unnecessary and would not change a thing in the organization. Take a quick example, say a weekly report arrives three or four weeks later; it would neither serve any purpose nor make a change as the decision pertaining to that information had already be made long ago. Timeliness is an aspect that can be measured against a calendar or a specified time frame. In a nutshell, when an Information System is developed, timeliness is a critical aspect, it’s actually a requirement of every system. An Information System that is not timed is likely to mislead its users.
Relevant.
Information must be relevant; relevant to both the subject and the context. A Chief Executive Officer or any manager will need information that is relevant to the subject and context of his or her area of concern; nothing more, nothing less. A quick example is where a CEO needs some information regarding the wages, he cannot be given a full list of the hourly wage for each and every employee of the organization, it is not relevant, what he needs is just a summarized wage information, the rest are irrelevant. The relevance lies on how the information is related to the area of concern, once again, a big mass of information is irrelevant; precision is needed. For the case of employee wage, a full list of employee name is quite unlikely, what is likely is just the wage information; according to division or departments that exists in that enterprise.
Just Sufficient and Worth Its Cost.
Information needs to be sufficient enough for the users; in other words, it should not be too much or too little for its intended purpose. Bulky information is quite misleading just the same way very minimal information will not be very conclusive; it might leave out some crucial aspects that need to be addressed. Sufficiency refers to how big or small the data is in addressing the context and subject under question. Information that is not too large or small; its average and effectively serves its purpose is considered to be sufficient. It should be able to address the concern using the minimal data aspects possible.
Data and information is quite expensive. Conducting out research to get date is a very expensive venture that has financial obligation. However, one cannot directly consume the raw data got from the fields, it needs processing. Processing raw data into information is very expensive; skilled personnel are required to carry out data analysis. It’s from that analysis that data becomes meaningful for a particular use. An information is worth its cost when the hassle of getting match its value when put into use. When the cost of getting information is much higher than its value then the data is not worth its cost.
