Information and analytical activity is one of the most important areas of intellectual activity of modern man. It is connected with solving problems in various spheres of life: politics, history, economics, education and others. Such work is carried out according to a certain methodology. The main sources of information are textual data, to simplify the processing of which automated systems are used.
General Description
In science, there are many definitions of information and analytical activities. Most often, it is considered as one of the processes in the field of management. If we consider it from a terminological point of view, then it consists of two terms:
- analysis - the division of objects into separate elements, which ultimately allows you to get a general idea of their structure and functions;
- information, or rather, its collection, accumulation, systematization and processing.
In a more general sense, analytics isa kind of mental activity technique, with the help of which factual data is processed with elements of forecasting. The content of this concept for various scientists and researchers has its own specific shades:
- a tool for converting intuitive concepts into a logical category;
- a form of knowledge used to make optimal management decisions;
- a way to study implicit processes in socio-economic and political life;
- mechanism for generalizing disparate data;
- basic research and development and others.
Essence and structure
The following processes form the basis of the structure of information and analytical activities:
- analysis of goals and setting work objectives;
- implementation of information collection in combination with adaptation to changing conditions of the situation;
- analysis and evaluation of the obtained data in the context of management goals;
- revealing the essence of the studied processes and phenomena;
- formation of a model based on a significant part of the data and the environment for the functioning of the object;
- Checking the conformity of the model and adjusting it (if necessary);
- planning and carrying out an experiment in natural conditions or creating a mental working model;
- formation of new knowledge based on research, forecasting;
- justification and communication of results to the consumer, performer or managerial person,decision maker.
This discipline includes three main components:
- work methodology in the analytical and informational aspect;
- organizational support;
- technical and methodological support (creation of instrumental components to achieve the goals).
Based on the above basic processes, analytics is the basis of mental activity, which is aimed at solving practical problems. In terms of cognitive activity, even an erroneous conclusion obtained as a result of analytical comprehension also has a certain value, since it contributes to the acquisition of new knowledge.
Development history
The origin of the foundations of information and analytical activities has its roots in the history of Ancient Greece. In the IV century BC. e. philosopher and founder of logic Aristotle wrote two books - "First Analytics" and "Second Analytics". In them, he formulated and interpreted the laws of classical logic.
Another ancient Greek philosopher - Socrates - is considered the founder of analytical technologies. In his writings, he used polemical analysis, the purpose of which was to gain new knowledge in the process of arguing with an opponent.
In the XX century. this area of knowledge and understanding has become a professional information and analytical activity. In all countries, there are information and analytical services in government structures. They are also created in individual organizations, banks,educational and other institutions. Software methods are being developed.
In Russia, this sphere of human activity began to take shape only at the end of the 20th century. as a result of exacerbation of socio-economic problems. Currently, non-governmental analytical centers are being actively created, the main mission of which is the development of civil society and the solution of social problems (IAC "Sova", the Moscow Carnegie Center and others).
Goals and management tasks
The main goal of information and analytical work (IAR) is to obtain qualitatively new information on the issue under study as a result of summarizing the source materials that were accepted for processing unsystematized and disorderly.
As part of the organization's strategic consulting, the objectives of this process are:
- provide management with objective data on internal and external performance;
- preparing the basis for developing a course for the development of the enterprise;
- identifying "bottlenecks" in the management system;
- implementation of large-scale projects.
Levels
During the implementation of such activities, two levels are distinguished:
- Informational level (or empirical). Work at this stage is related to the acquisition and preliminary processing of actual data. The level consists of several stages: obtaining and fixing information, its comprehension and description in scientific terms, classification and definition of the main dependencies. The researcher's job is also to weed out non-essentialdetails and data of a random nature, in highlighting the most typical, often repeated facts, determining the development trend, identifying obvious connections.
- Analytical level (or theoretical). At this stage, a deep and comprehensive analysis of the factual material is carried out, a study of the essence of phenomena and processes, a qualitative and quantitative determination of patterns. The result of the work is the prediction of possible events and the development of recommendations for influencing future processes.
Principles
The main principles of information and analytical activities are:
- focus on specific goals to perform applied tasks;
- significance of the study at this point in time (relevance), timeliness of results;
- use of reliable data for analysis, objectivity in drawing up conclusions and proposals, impartial attitude to research;
- recording of all information relevant to the task, continuous monitoring of conditions and their changes;
- a loyal approach to the opinion of each employee of the analytical service, the study of alternative options, including those that go beyond generally accepted ideas;
- Using the latest science and technology to deliver sound results;
- integrated problem solving, taking into account the relationship of various factors;
- high level of adaptation tochanging socio-political conditions.
Technology
Based on the basic elements of the structure of this concept, it is possible to determine the IAR technological cycle. The technology of analytical work is a set of methods and operations organized in time that contribute to the achievement of the goal. Below is her brief sequence:
- Preparatory work.
- Developing search characteristics.
- Collecting information and its preliminary analysis (empirical stage).
- Directly analytical activity.
Preparatory work includes the following activities:
- problem description;
- development of the main goal and its clarification, establishment of a work style that takes into account the specifics of the consumer of information products;
- determine the preliminary budget for the study.
Detailed study of search activities includes the following operations:
- formation of a group of workers to conduct research, appointment of a project manager;
- breaking the main goal into functions, tasks and operations;
- development of private (intermediate) goals in areas;
- formation of a list of possible sources of information and evaluated features, the composition of a data sample sufficient to solve the problem;
- definition of personnel and other resources for information retrieval;
- identifying data sources and assessing their information content;
- Developing a budget for the information layer.
Analysis andthe final stage of information and analytical activities
The empirical stage of work consists of procedures such as:
- determining the means to collect data;
- accumulation of information;
- analysis of sample representativeness;
- integrating data arrays obtained from different sources, assessing their inconsistency;
- analysis of the entire array, identification of trends;
- model synthesis;
- drawing conclusions about goals that can be achieved without corrective action;
- define the budget for the final stage.
The analytical, final stage of work is carried out in the following order:
- detection of critical points, the impact on which can lead to the maximum effect;
- creating a simulation model;
- result evaluation;
- development of an integrated management strategy;
- delivery of the information product to the customer.
Sources of information
Data used during information and analytical activities can be symbolic and non-symbolic. The second type includes design features, chemical composition and other types of samples. The most commonly used sources of character (text) data are:
- objects of non-operational information (archives, libraries, document repositories);
- traditional media: books,magazines, newspapers and other periodicals, manuscripts, photographs;
- non-traditional data carriers: holographic, magneto-optical, optical storage devices, information and computer networks of various levels, magnetic tapes;
- objects of operational information - information and communication systems (television, radio broadcasting, multi-server and cellular communication systems, etc.).
Text data has the greatest information capacity. Their advantage is also the fact that their collection and processing are relatively easy to automate.
Types of Automation Tools
Informatization of the IAR is carried out using two types of means:
- for collecting and accumulating data;
- for information processing and analysis.
The use of automated systems can significantly reduce the time spent on searching and processing text information. Their disadvantage is that the generated results still need to be edited and edited by a human, and it is also impossible to filter implicit mention of terms.
Information and analytical systems
Modern software can provide the following set of search services:
- analysis of the exact match of a word or set of words with a search task;
- adaptive search taking into account different word forms;
- search taking into account the spacing of phrase elements in the text at a given distance (it is measuredin words);
- search for a phrase, taking into account permutations and substitutions of words.
There are many developments of this nature on the domestic and foreign markets: Pathfinder, Arion, Classifier, Decision, Annotator, Deductor, Kronos DBMS, TextAnalyst, VisualLinks and others.
