Topic 4 - Information and Data

In the exam you are expected to:

Data

• Understand that data may require translation or transcription prior to entry into the system. This can affect the accuracy of the data.
• Discuss the impact of quantity and quality of data on the method of data capture together with the control and audit mechanisms required to manage data capture.

Information

• Understand management information needs: the concept of relevance and methods of interpretation.
• Understand that information has many characteristics and can be classified in many ways. Examples include:
  • Source - internal, external, primary, secondary
  • Nature - quantitative, qualitative, formal, informal
  • Level - strategic, tactical, and operational
  • Time - historical, current, future
  • Frequency - real-time, hourly, daily, monthly
  • Use - planning, control, decision

o       Form - written, visual, aural, and sensory

• Type - disaggregated, aggregated, sampled.

• Discuss the value of information in aiding the decision making process.
• Understand the difference between internal and external information requirements.
• Describe the characteristics of good information and delivery, e.g. relevant; accurate; complete; user confidence; to right person; at right time; in right detail; via correct channel of communication; understandable.
• Describe the advantages and characteristics of good information within an applications context.

Effective presentation

·         Understand the effect that the method and style of presentation has upon the message/design in relation to the intended audience.

In Module 1 we saw that:

·        Data were raw facts, for example the sale of a CD, or the temperature in Sheffield on 12^th October 2004.

·        Information was data that had been processed in some way, for example the weekly average temperature in Sheffield for the month of August 2003.

·        Knowledge was the way in which information could be used to make a decision, for example Product A is selling well, but Product B is not.  Therefore we need to promote B with an aggressive marketing campaign.

In this topic we are going to look at data and information in more detail, and how they can be classified in various ways.

Data

Data can be classified as:

• Fact, e.g. price of a printer;
• Event, e.g. arrival of new stock, or a patient has reported to the doctor’s receptionist;
• Transaction, e.g. making a booking.

To have any sense or meaning, data has to be ordered; scraps of data on little bits of paper are no good.  So data tends to be grouped into meaningful collections called a record.  A record would have the customer’s unique ID, their name, address, and telephone number.  A file would contain the records of the customers.

In a business system, data will arise naturally as transactions occur. For example each time a book is sold, the barcode is read into a barcode scanner, and the sale is logged onto the company’s computer.

Other operations such as when a weekly stock check program may well generate data about sales of product lines.

The method of collecting data depends very much on the application.  The table shows the three main ways of doing this:

Data Capture

Data is captured automatically at the point of origin or source document - such as a bar code system in a supermarket.  Other methods of data capture include:

• Magnetic stripe cards.
• Smart cards which have a chip on them;
• MICR used on cheques;
• Concept keyboard (which may have a number of products.  Each has its own key which is pressed when a sale is made).
• Electronic data interchange where computers in different companies can connect to each other to interrogate stock levels and place orders instantaneously.  A level results are sent to schools and colleges in encrypted form a couple of days before the release date.  A password is sent at midnight on the release date to unlock the data.

Data Preparation

Data is manually copied (transcribed) from the source document to a computer readable format. An example of this would be order forms in a mail order warehouse. 

• This is done off-line. 
• It is slow. 
• It is mind-numbingly boring. 
• Also operators can get RSI (repetitive strain injury).   
• Data preparation introduces the real possibility of transcription errors and this stage would normally be followed by verification. 

Data preparation methods are tedious and error prone, so verification and validation techniques need to be present to prevent errors.  These are expensive.

• Verification processes check for transcription errors introduced when data is copied from one format to another. This is particularly used when manual data preparation takes place but it is also used whenever data is copied from one medium to another.  Source documents should be manually checked before being submitted for data preparation or OCR input. 
• Validation checks are there to ensure that the data are in the right format and to eliminate errors such as 30^th February.

DDE (Direct data entry) Data is keyed in as the transaction takes with details being checked on screen. An example would be when a holiday booking is made.  When you order a product at an internet store, you key in your details, and check them before you press a submit button.

On line DDE systems can display data on screen for checking before processing takes place. If a holiday were booked then entering the code number for the package would bring up details on the screen. These could be checked before confirming the data for processing or even printed off and given to the customer to check.

If there is a large volume of data to be collected and the structure is similar then data capture or data preparation methods will be used. 

Automatic methods are increasingly being used to reduce the chance of transcription errors.  Data capture through barcode scanners are very reliable, and the scanners are getting less expensive all the time. Many companies now identify invoice details with a bar code printed on the invoice. These details are read in by a hand scanner when the customer returns the invoice with his or her payment. The amount paid can be keyed in using DDE.  An example is shown below:

The scanning takes a lot less time than manual entry, and fewer clerks are needed.  (Data preparation is also a mind-numbingly boring occupation)

Hand held devices are used to collect data, for example the Bromcom system for registering student attendance.  A class list is transmitted into the device via  a radio link, the register is taken, and the class list is transmitted back.  The list is held in the device in case it needs updating, for example the later arrival of a student (it does not record the pathetic excuses though).  Amended lists can be transmitted back.  Similar devices are used by gas and electric meter readers to record meter readings. The readings are stored in the device.   The devices can be connected directly to a computer for downloading at the end of the day, thus eliminating the data preparation stage. 

Errors in data will lead to errors in processing and output (GIGO – garbage in, garbage out). Such errors can be annoying or worse. Sometimes they are hard to find and rectify.  It is therefore essential that inputs be monitored closely to identify and correct erroneous data.

Information

Information provided to management must be relevant.

• It should not only relate to the particular manager's job, but also its level of detail should be appropriate.  Information that is not relevant or that contains too little or too much detail will hinder the decision making process.

In the early days of computers they were used for applications such as payrolls, where accurate calculation was important.  Nowadays computers can make decision making much easier.  Information can be:

·        At the operational level, for example the day-to-day running of a business, such as payroll, and invoicing.

·        For middle management, tactical information is needed for effective management.  Examples include how well a product is selling, and whether a special promotion is needed.

·        Senior managers need strategic information, such as new businesses opening up, employment patterns outside the company.  These can build computer models on the information as well as historical company data to assess how well the company would perform if key strategic decisions were made.

Good quality information should be:

·        Brief – vital facts in summary form without lots of extraneous detail.  Exception reports list items on which there needs to be action.

·        Accurate – inaccurate data leads to poor decisions.  Some decisions may be based on probability.  A farmer harvesting a crop does so after hearing that the weather forecast is good, but a local thunderstorm may come on that was not forecast.

·        Up-to-date information is essential if a customer needs to know if a particular item is in stock.  Argos stores have small key-pads in which a customer keys in a numerical stock code to interrogate the database to check if the item is available.  However a theatre manager looking at the overall success of a show might not be too concerned about the previous night’s sales.

·        Timely – reports should be with the right person at the right time.

·        Right level of detail – often it is better to report only items that need action.  Too much detail might make it hard to make sense.  However too little detail can lead to a simplistic response.

·        In an appropriate format.  Large tables of figures are meaningless.

The method used to present the information is important.  Tables are good for providing detail, particularly when individual numerical values are likely to be required, but lots of numbers can be confusing.  There are different ways of presenting numerical data in picture form:

·        A line graph is more appropriate when trying to identify trends.

·        Pie charts are useful for showing relative values.

·        Where there are too many categories for a pie chart, a bar chart could be used to show relative values.

Management may need historical data, for example comparing current performance with previous years and certainly information based on current data will be required - information that is out of date may well be worthless.

In addition predictions of future situations based on trends and the present are also required. Managers also need to be able to make predictions based on a variety of possible current actions so that they can gain some idea of what effect their decisions may have.

The information provided by a system can be classified in various ways as detailed below:

Source

• Internal - From within the organisation - possibly from data processing
• External- Possibly purchased or found in the public domain
• Primary - Information from original data.
• Secondary - From data that has been output by processing other data Secondary data is not reliable as sometimes it has been processed from primary data that is not up to date.

Nature

• Quantitative - Providing numerical values
• Qualitative - Using words to describe situations.
• Formal - Information provided according to some organisational procedure.
• Informal - This type of information will usually move through an informal route such as conversation, newspaper report, e-mail.

Level

• Strategic - Information relating to long term goals and performance - e.g. predicted market share compared to competitors over the next five years
• Tactical - Information relating to shorter-term management - e.g. summary sales information for a particular branch of a supermarket.
• Operational - Short term information relating to day to day operation of one part the organisation - e.g. list of items that must be re-ordered.

 Time

• Historical - Information based on data collected over some period in the past - e.g. sales figures for the past year. Whether or not information is historical depends on how quickly the underlying data is changing.
• Current - Based on the latest data
• Future - Information based on predicted or possibly known future data values. Predicted data values could be based on current data modified by historical data.  Sometimes predictions are little more than guesses and must be viewed with a great deal of care.

Frequency

• Real Time - Real time information will be based on current data in a transaction processing application such as a supermarket. The information could be changed as the underlying data is updated.  For example at the start of the day there may be 42 bottles of a particular red wine in stock.  Immediately a bottle is sold, the stock level is changed to one less.
• Periodic – how often the information is put together - e.g. annual report, quarterly sales report.  The longer the period, the more likely it is that the information will be strategic rather than operational.
• Use – Is it for strategic, tactical or operational use?
• Planning – Information intended to help plan some future action
• Control - Information used to control some process - e.g. the data output of sensors shows how an industrial plant is operating.
• Decision - Information used to support decision-making - e.g. the holiday rota would be used to decide if a particular employee could take time off.

Form

The form that information is presented in will often be decided by the mechanism that is used to transmit it through the organisation:

• Written – Information is typed onto a piece of paper, a hard copy.  It is low tech, but really quite reliable.  The paperless office has been long promised but never delivered.     
• Visual – Presentation of sales trends in the form of a chart, or line graph.                 
• Aural – at its simplest, this means listening to a senior person in the organisation droning on.  You will find out that it’s not just teachers who drone on.  Aural presentation is often forgotten almost as soon as it’s received.  Some organisations record presentations onto tape so that people can listen to the tape while driving into work.                                             
• Sensory – Often when a new product is released, people in the organisation want to see it, touch it, and feel it for themselves.

Communication is often at its most effective if all the senses are involved.                        

Type

Detailed - Information based on all the data.

Aggregated - Summary information bringing data together from a variety of sources - e.g. summary sales information for all the branches in a supermarket chain.

Sampled - Information based on a sample of all data. For example temperature readings are taken in many locations throughout Europe.  However we may wish to take information from a weather station in Sheffield and one in Amiens.

Value of Information

Good quality information is accurate, up to date, and complete.  However it does need to be passed through the right people with the right procedures if it is to have credibility.  Credible information must have evidence to back it up.  If it is to be acted on, it must be available at the right time.

A recent example of this was the British Government’s unpopular decision to back the American war in Iraq.  Information on weapons of mass destruction that appeared to be credible and compelling was found to have no foundation in fact.  At the time of writing, the politicians have tried very hard to distance themselves from that information, in preference talking about the removal of one of the world’s most odious dictators, something that few people would question.

These factors affect the value of information:

• Detail - The amount of detail must be sufficient to convey the information required but it must not be allowed to become excessive so that the meaning is obscured.  Most people just want to be aware of the summary, although that does need to be based on relevant detail.
• Purpose – Information should be relevant for the purpose.  A factory foreman will need to know the work assignment for each of the workers that he is responsible for. The managing director needs to know the productivity of each department.
• Confidence – To be credible, the information must be accurate, up to date, and complete.  It must be from a reliable source and be able to be evidenced.  Without this, the user would not be truly confident in its worth and would be reluctant to act on it.  Sometimes, however, correct information does come from unreliable sources, but the lack of credibility may lead to its being ignored.
• Format – Large blocks of text with tables of figures do not make compelling reading, and even worse presentations.  (I have had experience of such).  They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so charts and graphs are a more compelling way of presenting lots of numerical information.
• Style - The way in which the information is presented is important.  Too often people look for the entertainment value in a presentation, and there is the risk that it can be “dumbed down”.  This can lead to the information losing its impact and being less authoritative. However very formal presentations can be plain boring, so it is important that the presenter uses techniques to engage a wide range in the audience.  These might include pictograms (an example of which are different sizes of bottles indicating the amount of wine drunk).

• Manner – A report circulated informally may not have the same impact as a report presented at a formal meeting.  However circulating a report before a meeting may well lead to more informed and productive discussion.
• Timing - If information is to be effective it must be presented at the right time. It must be available at a time when the knowledge gained from the information can be used to influence the decisions to be made.
• Channel – Information has to be sent using the proper procedures, so that it can be checked where necessary.  Credible sources are essential.   Generally the more experienced a person is, the more credible that person becomes.  However one piece of wrong information can wreck many years spent building up a reputation for reliability.
• Destination - For information to be of use, it must reach the right person. This will be the person who has the power needed to make decisions based on the information.
• Understandable - Finally the information must be understandable. If all the above factors are present but the information itself is not understandable - perhaps because of the use of jargon, or bad grammar, or axes missed off graphs then it will not be used.

Effective Presentation

The impact of presented information is affected greatly by the way the presentation occurs.  A sloppy and amateurish performance that is unprepared will cause at best cynical amusement or at worst a walk-out by the audience.  So many organisations and individuals use presentation graphics (e.g. PowerPoint) to enhance their presentations. 

Large companies will spend a great deal of money producing very slick multimedia presentations that are based on expensively produced promotional videos; especially if they are after your money.  However if the presentation is over the top, it will lose impact.  A charity might well opt for a more low key effect.

Advertising is a specialist area of presentation for which no expense is spared.  And nothing is too moronic. 

The environment for a presentation is important.  Hotels make a great deal of income from letting out room s to corporate functions. 

• The room must be comfortable and warm. 
• Often mineral water is supplied; it’s a well-known fact that sipping water improves the brain’s function.
• Often boiled sweets are provided; the brain uses sugar for energy.
• If the presentation is a long one, coffee and luncheon may well be provided.

In short, if you want your presentation to go down well, you look after your audience and treat them as guests.

Good presentations will:

• Be pitched at the right level for the audience; they will not be patronised, nor will it be way over their head.
• Use a variety of presentation styles.  We are all different kinds of learner. (I am a very visual learner.  I like lots of pictures and colours, and do not remember long passages of speech at all well.)
• Be no more than about 40 minutes per session.  Even adults cannot concentrate for more than 40 minutes.
• Make the points clearly.
• Be appropriate to the occasion.  A comical approach would not go down well, if the meeting were to be making a decision to close a plant down with several hundred redundancies.  However a little humour would generally make most presentations go down well.
• Involve the audience, possibly with short activities.
• Be delivered by somebody who had practical experience of the material being presented, rather than some one who has simply prepared it from a book, or even several resources.

Bad Presentation

Bad use of presentation graphics can detract from the impact if there are too many juvenile distractions, such as tyre-screeching noises made each time a slide is changed.  Also there have been many instances where the design has been badly thought out, for example, black print on a dark blue background.

Other mistakes made with presentation graphics software include:

• Too much text;
• Too small a font;
• Too many shapes on a slide;
• Too many animations;
• Lists and lists of bullet points;
• The presenter simply reading out the bullet points.

The worst must be the presenter who prepares his slides on PowerPoint then prints them out onto overhead projector acetates!

Teacher training seems to be a fertile ground for bad presentation.  One example sticks particularly in my mind:

• It was after school and the audience were tired;
• No refreshments were provided – except for the Headmaster and the advisor who was leading the training;
• The training took place in the school library, which was a large L-shaped room, with a screen and an overhead projector in one corner.
• The heating had gone off;
• The woman (a highly paid advisor who had charged the school several hundred pounds for her visit) read off a closely-typed OHP acetate;
• She did not even face her audience, except to have a bite of her sandwiches, and biscuits;
• And then she spoke with her mouth full; I was always brought up to consider that as very rude;
• She spoke with little conviction and even less enthusiasm;
• Other than that she was trying to teach us how to teach, I have little idea of what she said.  I can’t say that my teaching is any the worse for what I missed.
• I vaguely remember the Headmaster summing things up in a sycophantic monotone.  I also remember the sullen feeling of resentment of having two hours of my time wasted for no purpose.  They would not have dared treat doctors or other professionals in a similar way.
• I also know that if I had taught a lesson as abysmally as that presentation was done, even the most docile of my classes would have been up on the benches throwing things about the room.

The absolute nadir of presentation horrors was again in the context of teacher training.  Here we sat in a big circle on plastic chairs in the sixth-form centre.  The facilitator told us that we were the experts, and that we were there to brainstorm (I hate that word) our ideas.  We then were given a thick felt tip pen and wrote down inane one-liners on flip-chart paper.  She then lovingly displayed all the flip-chart paper around the room, cooing about each one as she stuck it up on the walls with blutack.  I am not quite sure what we did with it then.  What I am sure about is that when I am being trained, I want to be taught by someone who knows what they are on about. 

And, believe me, I have had training that I have found positively inspirational.

Now try the Topic Quiz

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