Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 11
the Framework
perspectie
11.1 introduction
The most important aspect of information assurance is
people
. Today, the most
important person in this learning experience is
you
, the reader. You are today the
product of everything that has gone into your mind up to this point. Your experi-
ences provide you with mental models (a way to see and evaluate things), method-
ologies (a way to do something), and tools (a set of skills to apply in getting things
done). Everyone's experiences are unique and include a combination of inherent
talents and behaviors (nature, genetics) and learned skills and behaviors (nurture,
environment). Nature provides the capacity and nurture realizes that capacity to
varying degrees. Capacity and realization of that capacity are among the roots of
differences among people.
These differences make us unique and provide richness to life. These differences
also have the potential to cause conflict. People viewing the same thing often have
varying interpretations according to their own experiences. Business people tend
to see things from a business perspective and technical people from a technical
perspective. Moreover, people tend to look at things from the perspective of their
individual disciplines. Finance people see things and speak in terms of currency
(e.g., dollars, euros, and pounds), balance sheets, and income statements. Network
operators see things and speak in terms of bandwidth, throughput, and storage
capacity. Although an increase in throughput often has economic benefit to the
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