PIMS Chapter 2

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Chapter 2 Environment “Information management is 5 percent technology and 95 percent psychology.� Tom Peters.

The Project Information Environment Information lives in an ever-changing environment that has a direct effect and influence on its context, meaning and purpose. To understand the information, a project manager needs to look beyond the concept that information is a collection of data and start looking at information within a much wider and holistic context. Information is also a system of people, practices, values, and technologies in a particular local environment. In this environment, the attention is not on systems, but on human activities that are served by systems. Information environment introduces the notion of locality that is missing from the system view. Information lives in an environment with complex dynamics where change is systemic; when one element changes, its effects can affect the whole system. The environment consists of the numerous interacting and interdependent social, cultural, economic, and political subsystems that shape the creation, flow and use of information. This environment influences what information is collected, how it is organized, stored, what information is made available, and what information is valuable and which is not. A key element of managing information is the recognition that it's not just a matter of "processing" information. Information management depends on exploiting the information resources to the fullest. For projects to be suc-


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