Questions and Information Systems
How would you categorize the software that runs on mobile devices? Break down these apps into at least three basic categories and give an example of each. There are various ways to answer this question.
Management Information Systems Interview Questions
Students should identify that there are mobile operating systems and mobile apps. Most likely, students will break down mobile apps into multiple categories: An ERP enterprise resource p lanning system is a software application with a centralized database that is implemented across the entire organization. What is open-source software? How does it differ from closed-source software? Give an example of each. Open-source software is software that makes the source code available for anyone to copy and use.
It is free to download, copy, and distribute. Closed-source software does not make the source code available and generally is not free to download, copy, and distribute. There are many examples of both, such as: Firefox open source , Linux open source , iTunes closed source , Microsoft Office closed source.
Software licenses are not all the same, but generally the y grant the user the right to use the software on a limited basis. Organizations purchased ERP software to replace their older systems in order to avoid any problems with the year in their software. Data are the raw bits and pieces of facts and statistics with no context. Data can be quantitative or qualitative. Information is data that has been given context. Knowledge is information that has been aggregated and analyzed and can be used for making decisions.
Explain in your own words how the data component relates to the hardware and software components of information systems. There are numerous answers to this question, but all should be variations on the following: Data is processed by the hardware via software. A database is software that runs on the hardware. Hardware stores the data, software processes the data. What is the difference between quantitative data and qualitative data?
In what situations could the number 42 be considered qualitative data? Quantitative data is numeric, the result of a measurement, count, or some other mathematical calculation. Qualitative data is descriptive. The number 42 could be qualitative if it is a designation instead of a measurement, count, or calculation. A relational database is one in which data is organized into one or more tables. Each table has a set of fields, which define the nature of the data stored in the table. A record is one instance of a set of fields in a table. All the tables are related by one or more fields in common.
When working on a smaller database for personal use, or when disconnected from the network. What is the difference between a spreadsheet and a database? List three differences between them. A database is generally more powerful and complex than a spreadsheet, with the ability to handle multiple types of data and link them together. A database has defined field types, a spreadsheet does not. A database uses a standardized query language such as SQL , a spreadsheet does not. A database can hold much larger amounts of data than a spreadsheet. To normalize a database means to design it in a way that: Why is it important to define the data type of a field when designing a relational database?
A data type tells the database what functions can be performed with the data. The second important reason to define the data type is so that the proper amount of storage space is allocated for the data. Name a database you interact with frequently. What would some of the field names be?
Metadata is data about data. It refers to the data used to describe other data, such as the length of a song in iTunes, which describes the music file. The text lists the following the student should pick at least three of these: The process of developing a data warehouse forces an organization to better understand the data that it is currently collecting and, equally important, what data is not being collected. A data warehouse provides a centralized view of all data being collected across the enterprise and provides a means of determining data that is inconsistent.
Once all data is identified as consistent, an organization can generate one version of the truth.
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This is important when the company wants to report consistent statistics about itself, such as revenue or number of employees. By having a data warehouse, snapshots of data can be taken over time. This creates a historical record of data, which allows for an analysis of trends. A data warehouse provides tools to combine data, which can provide new information and analysis. Data mining is the process of analyzing data to find previously unknown trends, patterns, and associations in order to make decisions. The fundamental unit of data transmitted over the Internet.
Anyone could post content to the web, without the need for understanding HTML or web-server technology. A broadband connection is defined as one that has speeds of at least , bps. Voice over Internet protocol — a way to have voice conversations over the Internet. A n LAN is a local network, usually operating in the same building or on the same campus.
These items are not available to those outside of the company. Briefly define each of the three members of the information security triad. The process of ensuring that a person is who he or she claim s to be. The use of more than one method of authentication. With role-based access control RBAC , instead of giving specific users access rights to an information resource, users are assigned to roles and then those roles are assigned the access.
To keep transmitted data secret so that only those with the proper key can read it. There are many examples of this. Students need to provide examples of passwords that are a minimum of eight characters, with at least one upper-case letter, one special character, and one number.
Pretexting occurs when an attacker calls a helpdesk or security administrator and pretends to be a particular authorized user having trouble logging in. Then, by providing some personal information about the authorized user , the attacker convince s the security person to reset the password and tell him what it is. Knowing what needs to be backed up, regular backups of all data , offsite storage of all backed- up data, and a test of the restoration process. A firewall can be either a hardware firewall or a software firewall. A hardware firewall is a device that is connected to the network and filters the packets based on a set of rules.
A software firewall runs on the operating system and intercepts packets as they arrive to a computer. Physical security is the protection of the actual hardware and networking components that store and transmit information resources. Information technology is now a commodity and cannot be used to provide an organization with competitive advantage. How is the study by Brynjolfsson and McAfee different from previous studies? How is it the same? It is different because it shows that IT can bring a competitive advantage, given the right conditions. It is the same in the sense that it shows that IT, by itself, does not bring competitive advantage.
What does it mean for a business to have a competitive advantage? A company is said to have a competitive advantage over its rivals when it is able to sustain profits that exceed average for the industry. What are the primary activities and support activities of the value chain? The primary activities are those that directly impact the creation of a product or service. The support activities are those that support the primary activities. What has been the overall impact of the Internet on industry profitability?
Who has been the true winner? The overall impact has been a reduction in average industry profitability. The consumer has been the true winner. EDI is the computer-to-computer exchange of business documents in a standard electronic format between business partners. Give an example of a semi-structured decision and explain what inputs would be necessary to provide assistance in making the decision.
A semi-structured decision is one in which most of the factors needed for making the decision are known but human experience and other outside factors may still play a role. The student should provide an example of a decision that uses an information system to provide information but is not made by the system.
A collaborative system is software that allows multiple users to interact on a document or topic in order to complete a task or make a decision. How can IT play a role in competitive advantage, according to the article by Brynjolfsson and McAfee? The article suggests that IT can influence competitive advantage when good management develops and delivers IT-supported process innovation.
A process is a series of tasks that are completed in order to accomplish a goal. A business process, therefore, is a process that is focused on achieving a goal for a business. What are three examples of business process from a job you have had or an organization you have observed?
Answers to Study Questions
Students can answer this in almost any way. The examples should consist of more than a single step. There are many answers to this. What is an ERP system? How does an ERP system enforce best practices for an organization? It enforces best practices through the business processes embedded in the software. ERP system s can lead to the commoditization of business processes, meaning that every company that uses an ERP system will perform business processes the same way.
What is business process reengineering? How is it different from incrementally improving a process? Business process r eengineering BPR occurs when a business process is redesigned from the ground up.
It is different from incrementally improving a process in that it does not simply take the existing process and modify it. BPR became an excuse to lay off employees and try to complete the same amount of work using fewer employees. Have those who use the outcomes of the process perform the process. Subsume information-processing work into the real work that produces the information.
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Treat geographically dispersed resources as though they were centralized. Link parallel activities instead of integrating their results. Put the decision points where the work is performed, and build controls into the process. What is business process management? What role does it play in allowing a company to differentiate itself? It can play a role in differentiation through built-in reporting, and by empowering employees, enforcing best practices, and enforcing consistency.
ISO certification shows that you know what you do, do what you say, and have documented your processes. To understand business requirements and translate them into the requirements of an information system. D uties include keeping the operating systems up to date, ensuring available memory and disk storage, and overseeing the physical environment of the computer. The CI O aligns the plans and operations of the information systems with the strategic goals of the organization.
Answers to Study Questions – Information Systems for Business and Beyond
This includes tasks such as budgeting, strategic planning, and personnel decisions relevant to the information-systems function. A project manager is responsible for keeping projects on time and on budget. This person works with the stakeholders of the project to keep the team organized and communicates the status of the project to management. Explain the point of having two different career paths in information systems.
To allow for career growth for those who do not want to manage other employees but instead want to focus on technical skills.
Management Information systems Interview Questions & Answers
What are the advantages and disadvantages of centralizing the IT function? There are several possible answers here. Disadvantages include a more limited availability of IT resources. What impact has information technology had on the way companies are organized? The organizational structure has been flattened, with fewer layers of management. Rapid application development RAD is a software-development or systems-development methodology that focuses on quickly building a working model of the software, getting feedback from users, and then using that feedback to update the working model.
The biggest difference between the lean methodology and the other methodologies is that the full set of requirements for the system is not known when the project is launched. What are three differences between second-generation and third-generation languages? The words used in the language: Why would an organization consider building its own software application if it is cheaper to buy one? Responsive design is a method of developing websites that allows them to be viewed on many different types of devices without losing capability or effectiveness.
While HTML is used to define the components of a web page, cascading style sheets CSS are used to define the styles of the components on a page. What is the difference between the pilot implementation methodology and the parallel implementation methodology? The pilot methodology implement s new software for just one group of people while the rest of the users use the previous version of the software. The parallel implementation methodology use s both the old and the new applications at the same time.
The oversight of the changes brought about in an organization. Globalization refer s to the integration of goods, services, and culture s among the nations of the world. In this era, globalization was centered around countries. It was about how much horsepower, wind power, and steam power a country had and how creatively it was deployed.
In this era, the dynamic force driving change was comprised of multinational companies. There are several answers to this. Probably the most obvious are the Internet, the graphical interface of Windows and the World Wide Web, and workflow software. Advantages include the ability to locate expertise and labor around the world, the ability to operate 24 hours a day, and a larger market for products.
Challenges include infrastructure differences, labor laws and regulations, legal restrictions, and differe nt languages, customs, and preferences. The separation betwe en those who have access to the global network and those who do not. The digital divide can occur between countries, regions, or even neighborhoods. What was one of the key points of The Rise of the Network Society?
There are two key points to choose from. One is that economic activity was, when the book was published in , being organized around the networks that the new tel ecommunication technologies had provided. Identify which of the following is NOT an example of descriptive statistics: Which network topology uses a central hub or controller? Utilizing data from both internal and external sources, which of the following is NOT the best example of what a Decision Support System is typically utilized for? What term best describes the advanced Internet technologies and applications that enable collaboration and information sharing?
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