Quality of Information

Abstract

The IT revolution and the persisting steep upswing in available computing power of the recent decades has made reality ever more fine-grained. It has enabled previously unthinkable degrees of detail and precision. For example, a GPS-enhanced mobile phone can indicate where you are at any time with an accuracy of a few metres. The volume of information underlying this capability is enormous. Multiplied by the number of mobile phone users, it’s incomprehensibly large. This is just one of the myriad services that are available to everyone. This makes us volume consumers of information. Not everyone is so aware, but nonetheless we take accessibility and high precision for granted.

The need for information changes throughout the front-end phase. At first, there’s little information, and one relies by and large on assumptions and qualitative assessments. With time, the scope expands rapidly to include facts and numerical information of increasing precision. In this chapter we discuss how to ensure firmness of the basis for acquiring and processing information. In this discussion, quality means valid and reliable information.

If you don’t provide people with information, they will come up with something to fill the gap.

–Clara O’Dell