Quality of Information

There are 6 major factors that affect the quality of information. These are

• Accuracy
• Relevance
• Age
• Completeness
• Presentation
• Level of detail

Accuracy – Validation and verification can help to remove information outside set boundaries, unreasonable and not sensible information, but they cannot ensure that the information is accurate E.g. A person may be 18 not 81, this information will not be detected if wrong because it is within the set boundaries

Relevance – It will increase the amount of data that is stored and can waste time searching for required information E.g. Irrelevant to have a school pupils parents birthday

Age – Information can change over time, May be irrelevant or inaccurate if it is to old E.g. May have your address but could be to old

Completeness – Having only a part of information can also be worthless E.g. Telephone number without the area code

Presentation – Information loses value if it is not presented in a way that you can understand it or find what you want from it. Can be improved by sorting, by using graphs, bullets etc.

Level of Detail – Too much or too little information can be unhelpful. Should have enough information to be able to make a decision

2020-10