Data Verification and Validation

• Data verification
  It is a method used to eliminate transcription (Typing data into a computer from a data capture) error.
• Methods of Verification
  
  • Proof Reading
    A visual check by eye that no errors have been made.This is sometimes done by printing out data that has been input, and sending it back to the source of the data to check. For example, printed proofs of the pages of a book may be sent back to the author for checking.
    
  • Double Keying the data
    This is a check to see if data has been keyed in correctly. The data is keyed in twice, and the computer will only accept the data for processing if the two versions are identical.
    
    
• Data Validation
  

  A validation check is an automatic check made by a computer to ensure that any data entered into the computer is sensible. A validation check does not make sure that data has been entered correctly. It only ensures that the data is sensible. For this reason validation checks are not usually as effective as verification checks. They can however be carried out automatically by a computer and therefore require less work by computer operators making them cheaper to use.
  

• Methods of Validation
  

  There are many different methods of validation. The most appropriate method(s) to use will depend upon what data is being entered. The most common methods are listed here.
  

  • Presence Check
    Checks that data has been entered into a field and that it has not been left blank. e.g. check that a surname is always entered into each record in a database of addresses.
    
  • Type Check
    Checks that an entered value is of a particular type. e.g. check that age is numeric.
    
  • Length Check
    Checks than an entered value e.g. surname is no longer than a particular number of characters.
    
  • Range Check
    Checks that an entered value falls within a particular range. For example the age of a person should be in the range 0 to 130 years.
    
  • Format Check
    Checks that an entered value has a particular format. e.g. a new-style car registration number should consist of a letter followed by 1 to 3 numbers followed by 3 letters.
    
  • Check Digit
    A check digit is a digit attached to the end of a string of digits. It is calculated from the other digits and used to help ensure that the whole string is inputted correctly. The most common check digit is the one on the end of the ISBN
    
  • Parity Check
    Used in data communications to ensure that data is not corrupted when it is sent down a transmission medium such as a telephone line.
    

Enterprise Resource Planning Systems (ERP)

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) integrates internal and external management information across an entire organization. ERP systems automate all the internal and external business activities with an integrated software application. Its purpose is to facilitate the flow of information between all business functions inside the boundaries of the organization and manage the connections to outside stakeholders. In other way ERP attempts to integrate all departments and functions across an organization onto a single computer system that can serve all those different departments’ particular needs.

That is a tall order, building a single software program that serves the needs of people in finance as well as it does the people in human resources and in the warehouse. Each of those departments typically has its own computer system optimized for the particular ways that the department does its work. But ERP combines them all together into a single, integrated software program that runs off a single database so that the various departments can more easily share information and communicate with each other.

Take a customer order, for example. Typically, when a customer places an order, that order begins a mostly paper-based journey from in-basket to in-basket around the company, often being keyed and rekeyed into different departments’ computer systems along the way. All that lounging around in in-baskets causes delays and lost orders, and all the keying into different computer systems invites errors. Meanwhile, no one in the company truly knows what the status of the order is at any given point because there is no way for the finance department, for example, to get into the warehouse’s computer system to see whether the item has been shipped. "You’ll have to call the warehouse" is the familiar refrain heard by frustrated customers.

ERP vanquishes the old standalone computer systems in finance, HR, manufacturing and the warehouse, and replaces them with a single unified software program divided into software modules that roughly approximate the old standalone systems. Finance, manufacturing and the warehouse all still get their own software, except now the software is linked together so that someone in finance can look into the warehouse software to see if an order has been shipped.

Dealing Effectively With Information Overload At Work

As knowledge workers, we have to deal with a lot of information as part of our job. We’re processing hundreds, if not thousands, of information every day. With responsibilities, personal obligations, and other commitments we’re involved with, we can easily become overwhelmed.
Think about this. There are only 24 hours in a day. A third of that is allocated for rest (sleeping time and other relaxing rituals). The other third is for work. The last portion of those 24 hours is for recreation and family or friends. Add an extra hour to your rest and you’re oversleeping or slacking. Add an extra hour to recreation and you’re too lax and lazy. Working on extended hours might just be OK once in a while but doing that over and over up to a point that it becomes a habit can only mean two things: You’re either workaholic or mismanaging your work.
The challenge is clear: Finish work within the time allotted for work. The only problem is you don’t have enough time. Process overflowing information within very limited amount of time – that’s Information Overload delight.

Your first lifeline is delegation. But delegating tasks to others has become a luxury that we can hardly afford given the new environment we’re dealing with in this Information Age. Everybody has his or her own problems to solve in the first place. Because of the availability of tools and technologies, we’re now expected to yield more than what we’re willing to output. When we’re given a job, we’re expected to deliver results with all the parameters that were required to accomplish the job.

These are some of the things that will help you ease or mitigate the weight of Information Overload that is bogging you down:

Use Technology To Automate

Study the patterns of your recurring tasks. Are there any parts that can be automated with existing software? If there is no available out-of-the-box solution for specific tasks, does building a new tool satisfy ROI? The tasks that you may want to automate are the ones that are rudimentary or the boring stuff.
Modern Programming Languages make things possible. Many tasks that have something to do with computers can be automated. Programmers and developers take advantage of the Application Programming Interface offered by some productivity applications and services to address certain needs.

Eliminate Redundancy

Analyze the methods involved in your job. Scale down the processes to simplify task completion. You’ll be surprised to find steps that are unnecessary. Reduction of steps needed to put tasks into completion will increase efficiency and, thereby, productivity.
The book, “Eat People” by Andy Kessler has a good explanation of what efficiency and productivity are and how they are related. According to one of the famous Book , “efficiency is about inputs while productivity is about outputs.” writer further explained:
To really understand all this, we need to add another word. Effectiveness is how outputs compare with what was planned or desired – doing the right things, while efficiency is the ratio of the amount of actual outputs to actual inputs – doing things right.

Procrastinate

This seems to contradict what I stand for in this blog; but wait, let me explain myself here. What I mean to say is procrastinate when it’s inevitable. There are some legitimate reasons that allow procrastination. Wikipedia defines procrastination this way: “Procrastination refers to the act of replacing high-priority actions with tasks of low-priority, and thus putting off important tasks to a later time.”
That’s what I mean by procrastination. When nagging deadlines confront you head on, learn to negotiate. Some tasks are just impossible to turn in on their deadline. Negotiate deadlines if possible to give yourself more time to finish your tasks or project.

User Participation in MIS Development

The terms user participation and user involvement have been used interchangeably in the IS literature. However, in other disciplines, the concepts are accorded separate and distinct. In order to address this anomaly, Researchers argue that the term user participation be utilized to refer to development-related activities and behaviors of users and their representatives during the development process, and that user involvement be used to refer to the subjective psychological state that reflects the level of importance and personal relevance of the information system to users. These researchers also argue that user participation is one of the more important antecedents, or causes, of user involvement—contingent on a number of factors which are said to influence the strength of the relationship.

Implicit in this conceptualization is the notion that users who do not participate either directly or indirectly in the development process, but whose views are represented by individuals or groups of other users, who do participate, are in fact involved in the development process. The nature and circumstances of such involvement may prompt users to influence the trajectory of the development process and its outcomes, either by influencing their peers or by political action within the organization.

A high degree of direct and indirect user participation did not guarantee the successful implementation and use of information systems in the organization studied. Such participatory development practices did, however, result in the development of systems that adequately captured user requirements and hence satisfied user informational needs.

The central conclusion is that user dissatisfaction with developed systems centered on the poor management of change in the organization.

Strategic Planning for MIS

Strategic information systems planning (SISP) has been defined as the process of identifying a portfolio of computer-based applications that will assist an organization in executing its business plans and realizing its business goals. SISP is an important activity for helping information executives and top management identify strategic applications and align IT with business needs.

The literature of management information systems (MIS) concentrates largely on the nature and structure of MIS’s and on the processes for designing and developing such systems. The idea of planning for MIS is usually treated as either one of developing the need and general design concept for such a system, or in the context of project planning for the MIS development effort.

However, strategic planning for informational needs of the organization is both feasible and necessary if the MIS is to support the basic purposes and goals of the organization. Indeed, one of the possible explanation for the failure of many MIS’s is that they have been designed from the same “bottom up” point of the view that characterized the development of the data processing systems of an earlier era. Such design approaches primarily reflects the pursuit of efficiency, such as through cost savings, rather that the pursuit of greater organizational effectiveness.

The Modern view of an MIS is an organizational decision support system that is inconsistent with the design/development approaches which are appropriate for data processing. The organization’s operating efficiency is but one aspect for consideration in management decision making. The achievement of greater organizational effectiveness is the paramount consideration in most of the management decisions which the MIS is to support; it also must be the paramount importance in the design of the MIS.

There is an intrinsic linkage of the decision supporting MIS to the organization's purpose, objectives and strategy. While this conclusion may appear to be straightforward, it has not been operationalized as a part of MIS Design methodology. There are those who argue that the MIS designer cannot hope to get involved in such things as organizational missions, objectives, and strategies, since they are clearly beyond his domain of authority.

In short planning for the information systems in an organization generally has not been closely related to the overall strategic planning processes through which the organization prepares for its future. An MIS strategic planning process is conceptualized and illustrated as one which links the organization's “strategy set” to an MIS “strategy set”.