Data & information, Lecture notes of Advanced Computer Architecture

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Notes on Data & Information

SYBCA - Heta Desai

Data and Information

Data

 (^) Consists of raw facts.  (^) i.e. student names and no. of presents per month, sales orders or inventory part numbers.

Information

 Collection of facts organized in such a way that they have additional value beyond the value of the facts themselves.  (^) i.e. a particular manager keeps the records of monthly sales of rather than sales of particular sales representatives.

Information system

 Set of interrelated components that collect, manipulate and disseminate data & information & provide a feedback mechanism to meet an objective.  We all interact daily with information system, both personally & professionally.  (^) We use automated teller machine at banks, checkout clerks scan our purchases using barcodes & scanners, we access information over the internet and we get information with touch screen.

Data Vs Information

 (^) Student names and no. of presents per month, sales orders or inventory part numbers.  Several types of data are used to represent these facts.  (^) Meaningful arrangement of such facts turned in to information.  (^) Data represents real world things; simply the raw facts have little value beyond its existence.  (^) Information depends upon the relationships defined among the existing data.  (^) Turning data into information is a process or a set of logically related tasks performed to achieve a defined outcome.  (^) The process of defining relationships among data to create useful information requires knowledge.  (^) Knowledge is awareness & understanding of a set of information & ways that information can be made useful to support a specific task or reach to a decision

Characteristics of Valuable

Information

Accurate

 Information should be error free. Since incorrect data feeding in the transformation may result in the inaccurate information.

Complete

 Information should contain all the important facts. i.e. an investment report which does not include all important costs is incomplete.

Economical

 (^) Information should be relatively economical to produce. Decision makers must always balance the value of information with the cost of producing it

Flexible

 (^) Information should be flexible for verity and purposes. i.e. information on how much inventory is on hand for a particular part can be used by a sales representative in closing sale.

Reliable

 Reliable Information can be depended on. In most cases it depends upon the reliability of the data collection method, where as in some it depends on sources of the information.

Relevant

 (^) It is important to decision makers. Information that lumber prices may not be relevant to a computer chip manufacturer.

Accessible

 It should be easily accessible by authorized user to be obtained in the right format and the right time meet their needs.

Secure

 Information should be secure from access by the unauthorized users.

The Value of Information

(Benefits)

 (^) Information is directly linked to how it helps decision makers achieves their organization goals.  An information system is a specialized type of system and can be defined in a number of different ways.  (^) It is a set of interrelated elements or components that collects, manipulate and determinate data & information and provide a feedback mechanism to meet an objective.

Input

 In information system, input is the activity of gathering and capturing raw data.  In producing paycheck, e.g. the number of hours worked for every employee must be collected before paycheck can be calculated or printed.  (^) In a university grading system, student grades must be obtained from instructions before a total summary of grades for the semester or quarter can be compiled and sent to the appropriate students.

Processing

 (^) In information system, processing involves converting or transforming data into useful output.  (^) Processing can involve making calculating, making comparisons and taking alternate action, and storing data for future use.

Feedback

 (^) In information system, feedback is output that is used to make changes to input or processing activities.  (^) The feedback is used to check and correct the input on the number of hours worked.

Manual Information System

 (^) In manual information system some investment analysts manually draw charts and trend lines to help them make investment decision.  (^) Tracking data on stock prices over the last few months or years, these analysts develop patterns on graph paper that help them determine what stock prices are likely to do in the next few days or weeks.  Some investors have made millions of dollars using manual stock analysis information system.

Manual & Computerized

Information System

Computer Based Information System

(CBIS)

 (^) A computer based information system is a single set of hardware, software, database, telecommunication, people and procedures that are configured to collect, manipulate, store and process data into information.  (^) A business technology infrastructure includes all the hardware, software, database, telecommunication, people and procedures that are configured to collect, manipulate, store and process data into information.

Hardware

 Hardware consists of computer equipments used to perform input processing and output activities.  (^) Input devices include keyboards, automatic scanning devices, equipment that can read magnetic ink and many other devices.  (^) Processing device include CPU and main memory.  (^) There are many output devices like printers and computer screen.