Characteristics of good information

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.