Topic 3 - Quality of Information

If people are going to use information to make decisions, then they must feel confident the information is of good quality. In other words it must be...

• Complete

• Correctly targeted

• Accurate

• Relevant

• Understandable

• Up-to-date

• Timely and reliable

TIP: CCARUUT acronym.

Complete: There is nothing missing from the data (no gaps). Information should include all the data needed to make a decision e.g.

• The post code is not missing as this would delay the delivery of the letter.

• The data on the sales of every salesman so that reliable decisions can be made on what areas to develop in or which salesman to sack.

Correctly targeted: information should be presented to the people who need it. The question should be targeted at the people who are going to use it e.g.

• If asking for information about motorbikes there is no point asking car drivers.

• No good asking vegetarians about meat eating.

Accurate: error free and a true reflection of what it represents (correct). Accurate data is correct / truthful / has no errors.

Relevant / fit for purpose: - Data has to be related (not must have a purpose) to the task you are trying to investigate. Information should not be included if it has no bearing on the user’s needs e.g.

• There is no point using information about babies from people whose children are in their late teens.

• No good collecting information on ice-cream sales in Alaska in the winter if you want to open your kiosk in California.

Understandable: the level of detail and language used should reflect the user.

Up-to-date: - Information changes with time and without a date stamp could be too old to be useful OR means that the data is not too old to be useful. Information should not be a reflection of an earlier state of affairs e.g.

• A travel company would not have much profit from using 10 year old data on holiday patterns to decide which resorts to offer this year.

• Using a five year old mailing list might end up in letters being sent to dead people or people who have moved.

Information must also be timely and reliable - it must reach the right person at the right time. Information that is late is wasted.

If the quality of the information is good then the decisions made will be good. If a decision turns out to be poor, then confidence in the information used will be diminished.

Sources of information that have proved good in the past, give the user confidence to use them again.

VALIDITY Vs ACCURACY

Data may pass a validity check but may not be accurate. For example, it would pass any range or format checks but it may not be correct.

Example: a customer completes a form with DOB which is correct. e.g. 05/06/84

A data entry clerk makes a transcription error and types in the numbers the wrong way around 06/05/84.

Both would pass the range check to see that they are over 18 but only one of them has an accurate DoB for the customer

Another example would be for an exam mark between 0 and 100. If Ashleigh Muir had 85% but I entered it as 58% (transposition error) then it would be valid but not accurate.