Developing best information management practices for business results
Goals of an Information Architecture
The following points include several key user/manager-oriented goals that an information
architecture should address:
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Define the organization's key information domains and information
flows.
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Define the boundaries of the organization's information.
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Identify strategies for effective information ownership and
management.
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Make desired information management practices easier.
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Remove undesired information management practices.
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Improve adaptability by effectively communicating information
management policies.
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Improve managerial communications by effectively communicating
shared information models and needs.
These goals focus on creating an environment that promotes information management practices
allowing users and managers to realize both departmental and enterprise goals. An information
architecture must also articulate what information is most important to the organization. This
will often mean limiting the amount of data that is automated and made available to users. The
value of being explicit about information choices via the information architecture lies in being
conscious of what is being excluded, as well as what is being included.
Best information management practices
The process of translating the needs of the organization into an effective information architecture
is unique within each organization. There are some outcomes that may qualify as best practices
in a number of different water and wastewater utilities, but these are not necessarily "cookbook"
ways of doing things. The adopted architecture must represent such specific factors as the way
the organization works, the people who comprise its staff, the external reporting environment,
and the existence of legacy systems. The essence of some current best practices are summarized
here.
Enterprise Information Management Standards
Information is managed from the perspective of the enterprise. The alternative to this practice is
to consider individual "systems" as solutions to the operational needs of the organization. For
example, a laboratory information management (LIMS) application might be created without
considering links to GIS. In the best practice, architectural decisions are made which consider
related business functions and address them from the top down.
Standards are communicated and supported. The key concept in this best practice is that
standards are sumorted, not imposed. This condition can only occur when standards are driven
by users' needs for access to data, rather than from an arbitrary data format that is prescribed
through a system solution. Users of spatial data, particularly, drive adoption of standards across
working group boundaries, since GIS is a horizontal technology, one that spans the enterprise.
Understanding Information Requirements
Operational data supports day-to-day activities. Data is a critical commodity for a water ardor
wastewater utility. Nevertheless, many operational computing systems with pre-set reporting
formats, make access to data in other forms extremely difficult. This best practice supports users
in the way they actually work, rather than through vendor-stipulated procedures. In fact, the way
users want to work, optimized through enhanced technology enablers, should be the driving force
for system deployment.
Management decisions are based on documentable information. One of the benefits of
information system development is the ability to create an audit trail for decision-making. While
the art of good management of people and organizations is often exemplified by the ability to
make decisions when not all facts are known, an environment which enables more enlightened
decision support is preferred. In organizations that enhance data access for executives, there is
improved quality and greater confidence in the decision-making process.
Information Structure and Storage
The enterprise model supports distributed computing. Information Technology is a tool. The
best practice, under the client/server model, is for users to be empowered to do their work
efficiently. In the industry's more enlightened organizations, this means that the corporate
database is managed as though it were logically centralized, even though it is physically
distributed.
The enterprise model integrates individual user needs and enterprise goals. This best practice is
the corollary to that which precedes it. In the decentralized, though carefully managed,
integrated information environment, the needs of users and the enterprise are more closely
aligned than when one or the other is dominant.
Information Ownership and Maintenance Responsibilities
Users own data for operational purposes and are custodians for the interests of the organization.
Users who are included in the process of designing the integrated information environment are
stakeholders in the corporate approach to information management. In this best practice, users
become participants in the creation of an effective information architecture and take ownership of
their databases, knowing that this activity supports other users within the utility.
Users maintain databases by doing their jobs. This final best practice is the outcome of the
integration of process, people and technology. If work practices are optimized based on
technology tools, and logically consistent data management and maintenance routines are created
for the organization's workers, then data updating becomes a normal by-product of daily
activities, This final point is the paradigm for creating the shared data environment in the first
place, and it is the outcome toward which all water and wastewater groups should strive.
Summary
Developing an information architecture is a key strategy for water and wastewater utilities. The
architecture adopted for the organization must reflect people, process and data. Properly
implemented through recognition of organizational factors and business functions, best
information management practices in the water and wastewater industry can combine to enable
users to update databases by doing their jobs.
