What is the meaning of "informieren" in this context?

Question

I am working on a software development project where I am using IPERKA as a method to implement my project, which I found only in German language. But I feel inform is not a suitable word for informieren and couldn't think of any better word as well. May be Information collection .. Any help would be highly appreciated .

For example

Informieren und Vorbereiten : In english Inform and Prepare doesn't looks suitable

may be Information collection(Information Gathering ) and Preparation.. But since I am very bad in German .. any suitable translation would be highly appreciated.

Answer 1

"informieren" and "to inform" are kind-of "false friends": in German "informieren" has two meanings: reflexively used ("sich informieren") means "to gather information", non-reflexively used it means "to pass information". English only uses this latter meaning:

• "Ich informiere mich über ..." _{I learn about...}

• "Ich informiere jemanden über ..." _{I inform someone about ...}

For your purpose "assess (the situation)" or "learn" is perhaps a good choice.

Notice that "realisieren"-"realize" and "kontrollieren"-"control" further down your chart pose similar problems: I'd suggest "to implement" for "realisieren" and "to reassess" or "to follow-up" for "kontrollieren".

Answer 2

In this context research seems the most natural to me.

• research (What needs to be done?)
• gather ideas (Which ways of doing xy are available?)
• decide (What are we about to do?)
• development
• assess (Everything done as discussed in 3.?)
• evaluation (How did we do? Is there something to improve?)

Answer 3

Right away, I would have chosen "gather information" or "gather facts". Two ways, which hadn't been mentioned yet.

Answer 4

I suggest Erkundigungen einholen or, if it should be a verb only: erkundigen, for it relates more to the gathering of information.

^{(I hope I have not misinterpreted the question and you are looking for a German alternative; otherwise, the question would be off-topic anyway.)}