Management Information System, Selected Topics 1 &2, and Special Topics Questions for Exam Preparation. Spring 2016/2017 Chapter 3 1) The interaction between information systems and organizations is influenced A) primarily by the decision making of middle and senior managers. B) by the development of new information technologies. C) by many factors, including structure, politics, culture, and environment. D) by two main microeconomic forces: capital and labor. E) by management decisions. 2) An organization is a A) stable, formal social structure that takes resources from the environment and processes them to produce outputs. B) formal, legal entity with internal rules and procedures that must abide by laws. C) a collection of people and other social elements. D) B and C E) A, B, and C 3) Business processes are collections of A) informal practices and behaviors. B) formalized and documented practices. C) business rules. D) rights and privileges. E) routines. 4) All of the following are considered disruptive technologies except A) instant messaging. B) e-mail. C) Internet telephony. D) PCs. E) smartphones. 5) Along with capital, is the primary production input that the organization uses to create products and services. A) structure B) culture C) politics D) natural resources E) labor 6) Routines are also called standard operating procedures. (True/False)
7) All of the following statements are true about information technology's impact on business firms except A) it helps firms expand in size. B) it helps firms lower the cost of market participation. C) it helps reduce internal management costs. D) it helps reduce transaction costs. E) it helps reduce agency costs. 8) Information systems technology can be viewed as a factor of production that can be substituted for traditional capital and labor from the point of view of economics. (true/false) 9) List three organizational factors that can prevent a firm in fully realizing the benefits of a new information system, and provide examples for each. Answer: Features of organizations include the organization's culture, politics, and structure. A new information system might be resisted by end users or by managers for political reasons because they are concerned about the political changes the system implies. For example, a new system might lessen the authority of a manager in overseeing the employees, and he or she may not want to relinquish this power. A new information system might challenge the organization's culture and be resisted for this reason. For example, an information system might allow students at a university to take self-managed courses, while the university's basic cultural assumptions include the concept that professors are the purveyors of knowledge. An information system, by allowing the distribution of knowledge, may be better used in a company with a flatter organization. A company with a highly stratified hierarchy may have difficulty adjusting its business processes and structures to an information system that does not follow the same business hierarchy of information. 10) A substitute product of most concern for a cable TV distributor is A) satellite TV. B) broadcast TV. C) satellite radio. D) the Internet. E) terrestrial radio. 11) Walmart's attempts to increase its online presence is an example of a firm using information systems to A) strengthen ties to its customers. B) simplify the industry value chain. C) develop synergies. D) focus on market niche. E) achieve low-cost leadership. 12) Amazon's use of the Internet as a platform to sell books more efficiently than traditional bookstores illustrates a use of information services for
A) low-cost leadership. B) marketing effectiveness. C) focusing on market niche. D) strengthening supplier intimacy. E) developing synergies. 13) All of the following are IT-enabled products and services providing competitive advantage except A) Amazon's one-click shopping. B) Apple's ipod and itunes. C) Ping's golf club customization. D) PayPal's online person-to-person payment system. E) Walmart's RetailLink system. 14) Why does Amazon.com need to worry about competitors in online shopping? A) E-commerce is affected by the law of diminishing returns. B) Internet technologies are universal, and therefore usable by all companies. C) Internet shopping produces cost transparency. D) The Internet enables the production or sales of substitute products or services. E) The Internet increases switching costs. Chapter 5 Questions 1. What is the difference between traditional information management systems and knowledge management systems? Answer - Information management concerns managing organization's information resources to improve the performance of the organization, whereas knowledge management concerns the processes of creating acquiring, capturing, sharing and using knowledge to enable learning in organizations. - Information management focus on activities needed for controlling organisation's records. This is done trough managing information resources, and IT resources can be used. People are important but not a critical resource, whereas Knowledge management has people as a critical component to be managed. Also KM is oriented to improve the organisational performance and to add value through a set of keyprocess (mainly Knowledge sharing). - 2. Explain why organization culture is important in the design of knowledge management systems?
- culture can be understood as a set of rules, values, and beliefs that are shared by a firm s members and which conditions their behaviors, along with the configuration of the firm s image and identity in relation to its environment 3. List six major knowledge management systems that are used in organizations? - Descriptive, procedural, reasoning, linguistic, presentation, administrative knowledge 4. List and describe the components of IT infrastructure that firms need to manage. Answer: IT infrastructure composed of the following: - Internet Platforms Apache, Microsoft IIS,.NET, UNIX, Cisco, Java - Computer Hardware Platforms Dell, IBM, Sun, HP, Apple, Linux machines - Operating Systems Platforms Microsoft Windows, UNIX, Linux, Mac OS X - Enterprise Software Applications (including middleware), SAP, Oracle, People Soft, Microsoft, BEA - Networking/Telecommunications Microsoft Windows Server, Linux, Novell, Cisco,Lucent, Nortel, MCI, AT&T, Verizon - Consultants and System Integrators IBM/KPMG, EDS, Accenture - Data Management and Storage IBM DB2, Oracle, SQL Server, Sybase, MySQL,EMC Systems 5. Define and describe open-source software and Linux. How can they benefit business? - Open-source software provides all computer users with free access to the program code so they can modify the code, fix errors in it, or to make improvements. Opensource software is not owned by any company or individual. A global network of programmers and users manage and modify the software. By definition, open-source software is not restricted to any specific operating system or hardware technology. Several large software companies are converting some of their commercial programs to open source. - Linux is the most well-known open-source software. It s a UNIX-like operating system that can be downloaded from the Internet, free of charge, or purchased for a small fee from companies that provide additional tools for the software. It is reliable, compactly designed, and capable of running on many different hardware platforms, including servers, handheld computers, and consumer electronics. Linux has become popular during the past few years as a robust low-cost alternative to UNIX and the Windows operating system. Thousands of open-source programs are available from hundreds of Web sites. Businesses can choose from a range of open-source software including operating systems, office suites, Web browsers, and games. Open-source software allows businesses to reduce the total cost of ownership. It provides more robust software that s often more secure than proprietary software.
6. What is the difference between enterprise application integration (EAI) software and Web services? What role is played by XML in Web services? Answer: Web services offer a standardized alternative for dealing with integration across various computer platforms. Web services are loosely coupled software components based on XML and open Web standards that are not product specific and can work with any application software and operating system. They can be used as components of Web- based applications linking the systems of two different organizations or to link disparate systems of a single company. Web services are not tied to a particular operating system or programming language. Different applications can use them to communicate with each other in a standard way without time-consuming custom coding. XML provides a standard format for data exchange, enabling Web services to pass data from one process to another Businesses use Web services to tie their Web sites with external Web sites creating an apparently seamless experience for users. The benefit derives from not having to re-create applications for each business partner or specific functions within a single company 7. Define and describe the following: Web server, application server, multitiered client/server architecture. - Web server : software that manages requests for Web pages on the computer where they are stored and that delivers the page to the user s computer. - Web server : software that manages requests for Web pages on the computer where they are stored and that delivers the page to the user s computer. - Application server : software that handles all application operations between browser- based computers and a company s back-end business applications or databases. - Multi-tiered client/server architecture : client/server network in which the work of the entire network is balanced over several different levels of servers. 8. Which of the following is not an IT infrastructure service component? A) operating system software B) computing platforms to provide a coherent digital environment C) physical facilities management to manage the facilities housing physical components D) IT management services to plan and develop the infrastructure and provide project management
E) IT education services that provide training to employees Answer A 9. 4) Which of the following is a leading networking hardware provider? A) Dell B) Intel C) Seagate D) IBM E) Cisco Answer E 10. Software that manages the resources of the computer is called A) operating system software. B) application software. C) data management software. D) network software. E) partitioning software. Answer A 11. are computers consisting of a circuit board with processors, memory, and network connections that are stored in racks. A) Mainframes B) Rack servers C) Cloud servers D) Hybrid servers E) Blade servers 12. Place the following eras of IT infrastructure evolution in order, from earliest to most recent: 1. Cloud Computing Era; 2. Client/Server; 3. Enterprise Era; 4. Personal Computer; and 5. Mainframe and Minicomputer. A) 5, 2, 3, 4, 1 B) 5, 4, 2, 3, 1 C) 4, 5, 2, 3, 1 D) 5, 4, 2, 1, 3 E) 4, 5, 3, 2, 1 13. uses individual atoms and molecules to create computer chips and other devices thinner than a human hair. A) Virtualization B) Nanotechnology C) Quantum computing D) A minicomputer E) On-demand computing 14. states that the value or power of a network grows exponentially as a function of the number of network members. A) Metcalfe's Law
B) Moore's Law C) Law of scalability D) Law of outsourcing E) Law of networks 15. Which of the following is the most popular mobile operating system? A) Linux B) Android C) Chrome OS D) ios E) Unix 16. What is the difference between cloud computing, green computing, and quantum computing. Answer: In cloud computing, technology services are provided over a network, primarily the Internet. These may be infrastructure services, such as storage or networking, or platform services, such as IBM's application development and test service, or software services, such as salesforce.com. Green computing refers to practices and technologies for designing computer equipment to minimize impact on the environment. Quantum computing refers to emerging technology that uses the principles of quantum physics to dramatically boost computer processing power. 17. What are the drawbacks of cloud computing? Do you think these ever outweigh the benefits, and if so, in what cases? Answer: Students should be able to identify at least two drawbacks. Drawbacks include: 1. placing data storage and control in another firm's hands, 2. security risks in having critical systems and data entrusted to a firm that does business with other firms, 3. loss of business capability if cloud infrastructures malfunction, 4. dependence on cloud computing provider and switching costs. Student answers regarding the relative weight will vary, an example is: The disadvantages of cloud computing outweigh the advantages, except if any data lost is irreplaceable or creates harm to others. For example, a database of financial information should remain the responsibility of the original firm so that they can be held accountable. Chapter 6 Foundations of Business Intelligence: Databases and Information Management 1) A(n) is a characteristic or quality that describes a database entity. A) field B) tuple C) key field D) attribute E) relationship Answer: D 2) A(n) is an example of non-digital data storage that is comparable to a database. A) library card catalog B) cash register receipt
C) doctor's office invoice D) list of sales totals on a spreadsheet E) schedule of due dates on a project outline 3) creates confusion that hampers the creation of information systems that integrate data from different sources. A) Batch processing B) Data redundancy C) Data independence D) Online processing E) Data quality 4) Data occurs when the same data is duplicated in multiple files of a database. A) redundancy B) repetition C) independence D) partitions E) discrepancy 5) When the same attribute in related data files has different values, this is called data A) redundancy. B) duplication. C) dependence. D) discrepancy. E) inconsistency. 6) A DBMS makes the A) physical database available for different logical views. B) relational database available for different logical views. C) physical database available for different analytic views. D) relational database available for different analytic views. E) logical database available for different analytic views. 7) A(n) organizes data in two-dimensional tables. A) non-relational DBMS B) mobile DBMS C) relational DBMS D) hierarchical DBMS E) object-oriented DBMS Answer: C 8) In a table for customers, the information about a single customer would reside in a single A) field. B) row. C) column. D) table. E) entity.
9) In a relational database, the three basic operations used to develop useful sets of data are A) select, project, and where. B) select, join, and where. C) select, project, and join. D) where, from, and join. E) where, find, and select. Answer: C 10) The select operation A) combines relational tables to provide the user with more information than is otherwise available. B) creates a subset consisting of columns in a table. C) identifies the table from which the columns will be selected. D) creates a subset consisting of all records in the file that meet stated criteria. E) creates a subset consisting of rows in a table. Answer: D 11) The data dictionary serves as an important data management tool by A) assigning attributes to the data. B) creating an inventory of the data elements contained in the database. C) presenting data as end users or business specialists would perceive them. D) maintaining data in updated form. E) providing a guide to database terms and settings. 12) The most prominent data manipulation language today is A) Access. B) DB2. C) SQL. D) Crystal Reports. E) NoSQL. Answer: C 13) The process of streamlining data to minimize redundancy and awkward manyto-many relationships is called A) normalization. B) data scrubbing. C) data cleansing. D) data defining. E) optimization. 14) A database record is a grouping of characters into a word, a group of words, or a complete number. Answer: FALSE 15) An attribute is a characteristic or quality used to describe a particular entity. 16) Databases record information about general categories of information referred to as entities.
17) When you design the new contracts database for the publishing house, what fields do you anticipate needing? Which of these fields might be in use in other databases used by the company? uthor first name, author last name, author address, agent name and address, title of book, book ISBN, date of contract, amount of money, payment schedule, date contract ends. Other databases might be an author database (author names, address, and agent details), a book title database (title and ISBN of book), and financial database (payments made). 18) List at least three conditions that contribute to data redundancy and inconsistency. Answer: Data redundancy occurs when different divisions, functional areas, and groups in an organization independently collect the same piece of information. Because it is collected and maintained in so many different places, the same data item may have: 1. different meanings in different parts of the organization, 2. different names may be used for the same item, and 3. different descriptions for the same condition. In addition, the fields into which the data is gathered may have different field names, different attributes, or different constraints. 19) The policies and processes for managing the integrity and security of data in a firm are referred to as data governance. 20) What are the differences between data mining and OLAP? When would you advise a company to use OLAP? Answer: Data mining uncovers hidden relationships and is used when you are trying to discover data and new relationships. It is used to answer questions such as: Are there any product sales that are related in time to other product sales? In contrast, OLAP is used to analyze multiple dimensions of data and is used to find answers to complex, but known, questions, such as: What were sales of a product broken down by month and geographical region, and how did those sales compare to sales forecasts? 21) What makes data mining an important business tool? What types of information does data mining produce? In what type of circumstance would you advise a company to use data mining? Answer: Data mining is one of the data analysis tools that helps users make better business decisions and is one of the key tools of business intelligence. Data mining allows users to analyze large amounts of data and find hidden relationships between data that otherwise would not be discovered. For example, data mining might find that a customer that buys product X is ten times more likely to buy product Y than other customers. Data mining finds information such as: Associations or occurrences that are linked to a single event. Sequences, events that are linked over time. Classification, patterns that describe the group to which an item belongs, found by examining existing items that have been classified and by inferring a set of rules. Clusters, unclassified but related groups. I would advise a company to use data mining when they are looking for new products and services, or when they are looking for new marketing techniques or new markets. Data mining might also be helpful when trying to analyze unanticipated problems with sales whose causes are difficult to identify.
22) Describe the ways in which database technologies could be used by a toy manufacturer to achieve product differentiation. Answer: Product databases could be made available to customers for greater convenience and ordering online. Databases could be used to track customer preferences and to help anticipate customer desires. Sales databases could also help clients such as toy stores anticipate when they would need to re-supply, providing an additional service. Data mining, Web mining, and sentiment analysis of big data could help anticipate trends in sales or other factors to help determine new services and products to sell to clients. 23) You have been hired by a national furniture leasing company to implement its first business intelligence systems and infrastructure. To prepare for your initial report, describe the types of data in their firm they can use to support business intelligence and the systems that you will implement to support both their power users and casual users, and explain how these systems or tools work together. ll types of data can be used for their business intelligence systems, including operational, historical, machine-generated, Web/social data, audio and video data, and external data. The large datasets can be collected in a Hadoop cluster and used by an analytic platform to support power user queries, data mining, OLAP, etc. A data warehouse can be used to house all data, including smaller data sets and operational data, and be used to support casual use, for queries, reports, and digital dashboards, as well as support the analytic platforms. Smaller data marts can be created from the data warehouse to enable faster querying and typical queries from casual users. 24) In data mining, the technique of predicting uses a series of existing values to determine what other future values will be. Answer: FALSE 25) To analyze unstructured data, such as memos and legal cases, you would use text mining tools. 26) Implementing a Web interface for an organization's internal database usually requires substantial changes to be made to the database. Answer: FALSE 27) An application that transfers information from an organization's internal database to a Web server for delivery as part of a Web page to the user is called middleware. 28) With in-memory computing, a computer's primary memory (RAM) is used for processing.