Techniques for the assessment of the information requirement are:-

1. Asking Questions –
a. Very commonly used method for the assessment of the information requirement.
b. Involves asking the questions to the persons associated with the use of the system, mainly to get their requirements.
c. Some asking methods can be understood well from the table that follows –

2. Deriving from an existing information system
a. The information requirement for any proposed information system can be obtained with the help of the information systems that are in operation currently or also possess any type of the operational history.

b. For the achievement of the above explained point, the use of the various information systems is a must, so now it’s very useful to completely understand the types of the information systems that help play a vital role in such a scenario and the so the various types of the information systems can be summarized as the follows –

A. Existing system to be replaced by the new system.
B. Existing system in another, similar organizations.
C. Information that is available from the hand books, the industry, the specific studies or the different textbooks.

3. Ends Means Analysis
a. Very useful technique.
b. Helps in the determination of the various types of the information needs of the organization at the department and the individual manager’s level.
c. Helps in the separation of the definition of the ends that are generated by the organization process from the means, used for their accomplishment.
d. The outputs from one process acts as the input for the next process.
e. The ends means analysis brings out the critical information needs in a very effective manner.

What are The Critical Success Factors (CSFs)?
a. Act as a small number of the operational goals shaped by the industry and which can be easily identified.
b. Help a great deal in the determination of the information requirements of an organization.
c. These goals generally are assumed to be the assurance of the success for any organization.
d. On the achievement of these goals, the success of the company is almost guaranteed.
e. The critical success factors can be reached with the help of the large number of the methods but very commonly used method is the personal interview method.
f. With the help of the Critical Success Factors, smaller set of the data can be produced, which further can be analyzed but one very important point to kept in mind here is that the data which may be produced may be just aggregated without undergoing any type of the rigor analysis .

Business Systems Planning (BSP)
a. Also generally referred to as the Enterprise Analysis.
b. The Business Systems Planning is a method that is very much dependent or based on the process.
c. Was developed by the IBM in the 1960s.
d. At that time, was usually used for the establishment of the relationship between the large system development projects.
e. The Business Systems Planning is a top down method.
f. This method helps a great deal in the determination of the information requirements and also the information architectures.
g. The Business Systems Planning also plays a very critical role in the identification of the various key entities and the different attributes in the data of the particular organization.
h. The various steps are involved in the process of the Business Systems Planning and these can be summarized as the follows –
I. Achieving the commitment.
II. Proper preparation for the study.
III. Starting the study.
IV. Defining the business processes.
V. Defining the data classes.
VI. Analyzing the current systems support.
VII. Knowing the executive perspective.
VIII. Defining the findings and the various conclusions.
IX. Developing the recommendations and the action plan.
X. Reporting the results.

The Information acts as a very critical tool in making the strategies for an organization by the management of that organization. Information is almost everything for the planning that is to be done for the smooth functioning of the organization. The requirement of the Information can be defined as the statement of the Information that is very detailed in the nature and is usually about the Information needs that a new system has to fulfill. In the Information requirement, it is very important to identify who needs which information and also when, where, when and how it is required. With the conduction of the analysis of the Information requirement, one comes to know about the objectives of the system and after this the detailed description of the functions that the new system is expected to perform can be developed.

The Information is the resource and becomes imperative to analyze and also access the Information requirements of an organization, according to which the suitable information can be provided to the management for doing the planning for the normal and the result oriented running of an organization. With the help of the analysation, one can easily come to know about the needs and the type of the Information that is required.

So it is very difficult and at the same time very much important that the Information needs that are recognized are upto the mark and act suitably at the right time for the management for carrying on further with the process of the planning and then the decision making. In this step, there is generally a large possibility of the results going wrong and hence many system’s analysts refer this step to be very much critical and also at the same time they refer it to be very risky. According to the systems analyst, the major reasons because of whom it becomes very much difficult to get a correct and the complete set of the Information requirements can be summarized as the follows –

1. Humans are largely affected as the Information processors and the problem solvers by the various types of the constraints.
2. The variety of the various types of the Information needs.
3. The complex nature of the various types of the Information needs.
4. The complexity of the different types of the interactions that take place among all the users and the analyst.
5. Sometimes, the users are not ready or do not want to provide the Information about the various requirements.

The requirements of the Information can include the following factors –
1. Economic constraints
2. Technical constraints
3. Time constraints
4. Goals
5. Objectives
6. Procedures
7. Decision processes

The establishment of the various Information requirements can be done at the various levels and this is mainly done for the purpose of the development of the organizational Information system and these levels can be summarized as the follows –

1. Organizational Information Requirements.
2. The database requirements that have been defined by the various data models and various other specifications.
3. The detailed Information requirements for an application.

There is a dire need of understanding these levels in the detail and complete detail about these levels follows –
1. Organizational Level Information Requirement – The Organizational Level Information Requirements can be obtained by performing the following steps –

a. Defining the underlying subsystems :
i. Every organization is observed as a system.
ii. Every system further consists of a large number of the subsystems.
iii. The different subsystems are generally obtained by conducting various discussions of the organizational functions.
iv. The division of the systems in to the various subsystems is very much critical in the nature as with the help of this division the various requirements can be divided and hence, carrying out the whole process by the management becomes much more planned and very simpler in the nature and the working.

b. Developing the manager by the subsystem matrix –
i. The various organizational subsystems are in this step related with the specific managers and this is done with the help of the matrix format.
ii. The matrix is prepared by reviewing the different decision responsibilities of each of the manager, starting from the middle to the top.
iii. One is able to get a good picture of the decision making responsibility with great clarity.
iv. One also gets a very good and a clear picture of the various responsibilities.
v. One is able to recognize all those set of the managers that are to be interviewed relative to each of the sub-system.

c. Define and evaluate the information requirements for the organizational subsystem –
i. In this stage, the groups interviews are conducted of all those managers who possess the decision making responsibility for the various sub-systems.
ii. By performing the above step, the information requirements of each of the sub-system of the organization can be obtained.

2. Database requirements – The applications and the ad hoc queries give rise to the database requirements. The complete architecture for the database forms a major part of the organizational information requirement and helps a lot in meeting the different requirements. A very critical point to remember here is that for getting a very efficient and a detailed database, the requirements must be divided in to defining the data requirement that has been perceived by the different users and also in to defining the requirements for the physical design of the database.

3. Application Level Information Requirement – The information processing for a particular organizational activity or a specific organizational unit can be obtained with the help of the subsystem of the overall information system.

Types of the application level information requirement can be categorized as the follows –

a. Social requirements –
I. Also called as the Behavioral requirements.
II. Are based on the job design.
III. Provides the specification about the various objectives and the assumptions.

b. Technical requirements –
I. Are based on the information that is required for the performance of any type of the task.
II. Provides the specification about the inputs, the outputs, the data that has been stored and the various information processes.
III. The structure and the format of the data are very necessary in case of the technical requirements.
IV. Involve the interface requirements between the user system and the application system.

The Newell Simon Model was proposed by Allele Newell and Herbert Simon and this model mainly focuses on the solving of the human problem and also on the human information system.

According to the Newell Simon Model, the processor, the sensory inputs; the motor output and the three types of the memories (long term memory, short term memory and the external memory) form the very important part of the human information processing system.

In this model, there is no possibility of performing or processing the number of the tasks at a time with the help of the human memory i.e. only one information processing task can be performed at a time with the help of the human memory and this process is generally referred to as the Parallel Processing.

Read more about What is the Requirement of the Information?

It is the human being who is having the ability to hear, see, touch, feel and smell and further these senses are transmitted to the brain. Here the activity of the brain begins and it analyze these senses and ultimately gives the answer that is the best suited.

The activity of the human brain is very unique in the nature of the working and finds its base of functioning associated to the Information Processing.

The details of the “Model of the Human as the Information Processor” can be explained as the follows –
1. The ears, nose, eyes etc (sensory receptors) pick up the signals.
2. These signals are then transferred to the brain.
3. The brain processes these signals.
4. Then the brain gives the suitable answers or responses.
5. The signals from the sensory receptors act as the inputs and the responses act as the outputs.
As explained above, the inputs are accepted by the brain and the responses are given by the brain but one important fact to remember here is that the ability of the brain to accept the inputs and offer the outputs is limited in the nature i.e. the brain is not having the ability to accept unlimited inputs and then to come out with the unlimited number of the outputs. When the number of the inputs increase a lot the situation is referred to as the ‘Over Loading’.

For the efficient working, it very necessary to avoid this over loading and for doing this, one must restrict the inputs to a quantity that can be easily managed. This step involves selecting only that material that is required i.e. one must be very much selective in the acceptance of the inputs. The inputs that are not essential must be blocked and by this one is able to create the filters as a result of the following –

1. Frame of reference about the person concerned, based on the prior knowledge and the experience.
2. Very normal decision procedure.
3. Decision making under the stress.

One very important point to be remembered here is that the filtering, as explained above helps in the blockage of the data that is not needed or wanted but along with this, filtering also blocks the data that is not considered to be very consistent in the nature and working, with the help of the established frame of the reference. Ultimately, may sometimes result in the errors of the perception like the omission, the distortion, the inferences etc.

The errors of the perception usually result in the reduction of the information content.

Levels of the Decision – Making Process (More Types of the Information)

1. Strategic Level
For making the decisions strategically, strategic information is very essential. This type of the information is very wholistic and un-structured in the nature. Strategic Information is obtained in huge amounts from the external environment. During this level, futuristic inputs are used as these help in the long – term planning.

The futuristic inputs generally include –
a. Emerging technologies
b. The competition
c. Consumer preferences
d. Socio – economic – political changes

2. Tactical Level
Medium and short term planning is generally done with the help of the Tactical information that can be obtained from the middle management, budgets, fore – casts, analysis, cash / funds flow projections etc.
The Tactical information can be obtained from the internal environment and also from the external environment.

3. Operational Level
The people ranging from a shift to a day or a week or a month can be controlled or operated with the help of the Operational Information and this type of the Information provides a great look about what is currently happening around with – in the organization. The Tactical information is obtained from the internal sources and covers the certain product, specific activity and a smaller number of the people.