STRATEGIC INFORMATION SYSTEM

Strategic Information System

Strategic Information Systemn

This paper is based on questions and answers related to data and information management.

1. Data and Information

The term raw data is used most commonly to refer to information that is gathered for a research study before that information has been transformed or analysed in any way. The term can apply to the data as soon as they are gathered or after they have been cleaned, but not in any way further transformed or analysed. The challenge for most researchers who collect and analyse data is to extract useful information from the raw data they start with.

First, it is important to note that data is a plural noun {datum is the singular noun). Second, all collections of raw data are, by definition, incomplete. Some data are uncollected because of a variety of constraints. Lack of time and money are common reasons researchers fail to collect all available raw data to answer a given research question. Increasingly, however, data collection has become easier and more efficient in many ways, and more and more of the data that are intended to be collected are collected. (Of note, a counter trend in survey research has led to a decrease in the amount of intended data that are able to be collected. This is the trend for sampled respondents to be more reluctant to cooperate with survey requests.) Absent the ability to process this additional raw data, merely having more data may not increase knowledge, but enhanced computing power has produced an ability to process more data at little or no additional cost.

Third, the expression raw data implies a level of processing that suggests that these data cannot provide useful information without further effort. Raw suggests the data have not yet been summarised or analysed in a way so as to "release" the information for which it was collected.

Fourth, raw data may be collected in alternative representational schemes that affect how the researcher thinks about processing the data. Perhaps the easiest way to think about this is to consider the variety of symbolic formats used in computer processing of information. Data are commonly represented in binary, hexadecimal, or decimal number systems, or as ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) text. Data organisation is also relevant: Information may be organised as bits, nibbles, bytes, words, or other such units.

In some cases, one researcher's processed data may be another's raw data. The methodology by which data are collected and the level of aggregation of collected data play important roles in defining information as raw data to be analysed.

2. Information and Decisionmaking

The assessment of problem-solving and decision-making skills entails identifying specific domains in the pyramid that require further development to enable a client to solve the career problem at hand and to make a decision.

Decision-Making Skills. The CTI may be used to identify specific CASVE Cycle phases in which clients experience blocks in the career problem-solving process brought about by dysfunctional career ...