Principles of Information Resource Management. A Foundation for the Future

Download or read book Principles of Information Resource Management. A Foundation for the Future written by Paul D. Condit and published by . This book was released on 1992 with total page 116 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Department of Defense (DOD) is dependent on many automated information systems which have been implemented over several decades. These systems represent widely diverse technology in the form of fragmented, inflexible, and often inconsistent information resources such as software, hardware, and data. Although technology has advanced rapidly, efficient and effective management of DOD's total information resources has not yet been realized. The DOD information resource management (IRM) program, initiated in the early 1980's, attempted to bring order to this chaotic environment. Less than a decade later the corporate information management (CIM) program has been established for the very same reason. The CIM program is focused on actions to improve the quality of DOD information systems, actions deemed essential to cope with budget and force reduction, and actions in harmony with DOD's total quality management (TQM) initiative and its fundamental principle of continuous process improvement. Information systems, whether manual or automated, are mechanisms to integrate the processes of enterprises (an industry or government agency), whose efficiency and effectiveness are determined to a large extent by the level of integration achieved. To understand TQM and IRM is to understand that an enterprise is a complex system that requires design through the application of sound engineering practice. This paper presents a cohesive set of principles and motivating concepts for IRM with the principles of TQM as the nucleus. Together, TQM and IRM provide the general principles for engineering enterprises with information systems treated as an integral part of the enterprise and information used as the primary integrating agent.