Overview

Creating information is often the easy part and appears at first glance to require little thought or planning. After all the whole drive of the IT industry in recent years has been to empower the user to create and manipulate information as quickly and easily as possible. Quantity, however, does not necessarily equal quality. Indeed it can often help contribute against it. Sometimes this may not matter. A hastily scribbled 'to do' list serves its purpose so long as it reminds you of what you must do and when you must do it by - assuming of course that you can find it when you need it. It is of little consequence whether it is typed into a word document, listed in an online diary or scribbled on the back of the proverbial envelope. Nor does it much matter whether it contains spelling mistakes or abbreviations only known to you. A completely different set of rules and acceptable quality standards apply when drafting of your annual report, designing a system for handling contracts or entering data within your personnel database.

The questions to be addressed during this phase are largely aimed at ensuring that the information created is fit for purpose and that it is actually capturing appropriate and reliable content. They include the following questions: