Information architecture

The methods through which information is generated, structured, stored, maintained, linked, exchanged and used.

knowledge

sector-specific

Information architecture is an essential knowledge of the following occupations:

Enterprise architect: Enterprise architects balance technological opportunities with business requirements. They also maintain a holistic view of the organisation’s strategy, processes, information and ICT assets and link the business mission, strategy and processes to the ICT strategy.
ICT information and knowledge manager: ICT information and knowledge managers contribute to the definition of organisational information strategy and apply information and knowledge creation, editing, storage, and distribution policies. They manage the maintenance and evolution of structured and unstructured information. They create digital structures to enable exploitation and optimisation of information and knowledge, manage data analysis and enable business intelligence.
Chief information officer: Chief information officers define and implement the ICT strategy and governance. They determine necessary resources for the ICT strategy implementation, anticipate ICT market evolutions and company business needs. They contribute to the development of the organisation’s strategic plan and ensure that the ICT infrastructure supports the organisation’s overall operations and priorities.

Information architecture is optional for these occupations. This means knowing this knowledge may be an asset for career advancement if you are in one of these occupations.

Integration engineer: Integration engineers develop and implement solutions which coordinate applications across the enterprise or its units and departments. They evaluate existing components or systems to determine integration requirements and ensure that the final solutions meet organisational needs. They reuse components when possible and assist management in taking decisions. They perform ICT system integration troubleshooting.
Digital forensics expert: Digital forensics experts retrieve and analyse information from computers and other types of data storage devices. They examine digital media that may have been hidden, encrypted or damaged, in a forensic manner with the aim to identify, preserve, recover, analyse and present facts and opinions about the digital information.
ICT intelligent systems designer: ICT intelligent systems designers apply methods of artificial intelligence in engineering, robotics and computer science to design programs which simulate intelligence including thinking models, cognitive and knowledge-based systems, problem solving, and decision making. They also integrate structured knowledge into computer systems (ontologies, knowledge bases) in order to solve complex problems normally requiring a high level of human expertise or artificial intelligence methods.
Language engineer: Language engineers work within the field of computing science, and more specifically in the field of natural language processing. They aim to close the gap in translation between accurate human translations to machine-operated translators. They parse texts, compare and map translations, and improve the linguistics of translations through programming and code.
Knowledge engineer: Knowledge engineers integrate structured knowledge into computer systems (knowledge bases) in order to solve complex problems normally requiring a high level of human expertise or artificial intelligence methods. They are also responsible for eliciting or extracting knowledge from information sources, maintaining this knowledge, and making it available to the organisation or users. To achieve this, they are aware of knowledge representation and maintenance techniques (rules, frames, semantic nets, ontologies) and use knowledge extraction techniques and tools. They can design and build expert or artificial intelligence systems that use this knowledge.
System configurator: System configurators tailor a computer system to the organisation’s and users’ needs. They adjust the base system and software to the needs of the customer. They perform configuration activities and scripting and ensure communication with users.
ICT system integration consultant: ICT system integration consultants advise on bringing together different systems to interoperate within an organisation for enabling data sharing and reducing redundancy.

Data analyst: Data analysts import, inspect, clean, transform, validate, model, or interpret collections of data with regard to the business goals of the company. They ensure that the data sources and repositories provide consistent and reliable data. Data analysts use different algorithms and IT tools as demanded by the situation and the current data. They might prepare reports in the form of visualisations such as graphs, charts, and dashboards.
Chief data officer: Chief data officers manage companies’ enterprise-wide data administration and data mining functions. They ensure data are used as a strategic business asset at the executive level and implement and support a more collaborative and aligned information management infrastructure for the benefit of the organisation at large.
Application engineer: Application engineers deal with the technical requirements, management, and design for the development of various engineering applications, such as systems, new product designs, or the improvements of processes. They are responsible for the implementation of a design or process improvement, they offer technical support for products, answer questions about the technical functionality and assist the sales team.
ICT business analyst: ICT business analysts are in charge of analysing and designing an organisation’s processes and systems, assessing the business model and its integration with technology. They also identify change needs, assess the impact of the change, capture and document requirements and then ensure that these requirements are delivered whilst supporting the business through the implementation process.

References

1. Information architecture – ESCO