ABSTRACT
Decisions may be simple or complex and they may be based on both tacit and explicit knowledge. Gathering, capturing, and refining an organization’s decision making is a complex process as most of this knowledge is held in fragmented subsets by people from far-flung organizational units. Data represents the basic terms used in the operation of an organization. Discovering and capturing information flows is most easily accommodated by disciplines that study and model the composition and movement of data structures. These disciplines are often recognized as process modeling, data modeling, and workflow analysis. Before an organization can learn to manage its knowledge, it must first create consistent definitions for the data it uses. Information is comprised of data arranged into a deliberate structure. The most significant characteristics of information is that it: implies movement, must have a sender and receiver, is considered valuable to both the receiver and sender, and has a purpose.
