Business Information Systems Essay

1. What is a decision? When does a person experience to make a decision? A decision is a death or resolution r each(prenominal)ed after a thought out experimental condition of variables in a line of act. When more(prenominal) than unitary possible action is mired in solving a problem, a decision must be made. 2. Calculating a complex trajectory of a spaceship to vitiate is a structured problem, whereas diagnosing the ca rehearse of a rash on a persons skin is a good deal unorganised. How so? A structured problem is one in which an best solution piece of tail be reached through a single round of steps. Since the one set of steps is know, and since the steps must be followed in a known sequence, solving a structured problem with the equivalent info forever and a day turn outs the same solution. This sequence of steps is known as an algorithm. An unregulated problem is one for which there is no algorithm to follow to reach an optimal solution either beca subprogram there is non enough information close the factors that expertness affect the solution or because there atomic number 18 so many potential factors that no algorithm can be develop to guarantee a unique optimal solution. Unstructuredness is closely related to uncertainty.3. DSSs use mystifys to process selective information. Explain what a model is. Give an example that is non mentioned in the chapter. A sequence of events or a pattern of conduct might be roll in the hay a useful model when the relationships among its inputs, outputs, and conditions can be established well enough that they can be employ to prove different parameters. Models are used to predict output on the bottom of different input or different conditions or to estimate what confederacy of conditions and input might lead to a desired output. Models are ofttimes based on mathematical research or on experience. A model might be a widely used system to predict performance, much(prenominal) as best- fit lin ear analysis, or it might be built by the organization, using the experience that employees in the soaked nourish accumulated over time. 4. umteen DSSs are not stand- altogether anymore, but are embedded in an other(a)(prenominal) ISs. What are those ISs? Many DSSs are now closely intertwined with other organizational systems, including data warehouses, data marts, and ERP systems, from which they draw relevant data. 5. What is a esthesia test?A sensitivity analysis is conducted to test the degree to which the total profit grows or shrinks if one or more of the factors is increased or decreased. It is often referred to as what- if analysis.6. The skyway and hospitality industries use DSSs for yield management. What is yield management, and what is the output of a yield management DSS? The purpose of yield management DSSs is to find the proper price to maximize the over all(prenominal) revenue from selling seats for each flight. The terminus is often price discrimination.7. W hat is the purpose of an expert system? How can it divine service as a competitive tool? The purpose of ESs is to replicate the unstructured and undocumented companionship of the few (the experts), and put it at the disposal of the many other people who privation the knowledge, often novices or professionals in the same domain but with far less expertise. It can overhaul as a competitive tool by the using of a knowledge base, which is a collection of facts and the relationships among them. An ES does not use a model module but an inference engine. The inference engine is software that combines data that is input by the exploiter with the data relationships stored in the knowledge base. The resolving power is a diagnosis or suggestion for the best course of action. In most ESs, the knowledge base is built as a series of IF- THEN rules. 8. Explain how expert systems can distribute expertise.By labor union quantitative data from a database with decision models. An expert system (ES) is actual to emulate the knowledge of an expert to solve problems and make decisions in a relatively narrow domain. 9. How could an ES be used to detect probable fraud committed by a bank employee? Business applications beat increasingly combined queasy nets and ES technologies in software that monitors task processes and supply chain management. Neural nets get hold of been very effective in detecting fraud of many types.10. What is the favor of combining ES and neural net technologies? ES researchers continue to look for ways to better gaining control knowledge and represent it. They test the results of such efforts in highly unstructured problem- solving domains. Rather than containing a set of IF- THEN rules, more sophisticated ESs use neural networks (neural nets), programs that are designed to mimic the way a human brain learns. An ES is constructed with a set of rules, but as data on real successes and failures of decisions is accumulated and fed into the system , the neural network refines the rules to accomplish a higher success rate. 11. What is a GIS? What purpose does it serve?GISs process location data and provide output. For instance, a GIS could be used to help a housing developer determine where to invest by tracking and displaying population changes on a map, highlighting in color increases of more than 10 percent over the past tether years. 12. Name the three major elements that are combined to make up a GIS. A typical GIS consists of (1) a database of quantitative and qualitative data from which information is extracted for display, (2) a database of maps, and (3) a program that displays the information on the maps. Chapter 111. What is business cognition?Business intelligence (BI) mainly refers to computer-based techniques used in identifying, extracting, and analyzing business data, such as sales revenue by products and/or departments, or by associated costs and incomes. 2. What is OLAP, and why is it often associated with visual cubes? OLAP is an nest to swiftly declaration multi-dimensional analytic (MDA) queries. It is another type of application used to exploit data warehouses. Although OLAP might not be as sophisticated in terms of the analysis conducted, it has extremely fast response time and enables executives to make well timed(p) decisions. Each side of the cube provides another two dimensions of relevant information.3. What is the receipts of using a dimensional database quite than on- the- fly processing in OLAP? Tables, even if joining data from several sources, limit the review of information. Often, executives need to view information in multiple combinations of two dimensions. 4. Why is online analytical processing usually conducted on warehoused data or dimensional databases rather than on data in transactional databases? To speed up response and sum up that data and organize the information in dimensional databases for OLAP. 5. What is drilling squander?A process by which o ne starts with a table that shows wide-cut information and successively retrieves tables of more specific information. Chapter 121. Why is IT prep so important?* Creating a corporate and IT direction statement.  * Articulating the vision for IT inside the organization.  * Creating IT strategic and tactical plans.  * Creating a plan for operations to achieve the agency and vision. * Creating a budget to ensure that resources are available to achieve the mission and vision 2. As part of their IT planning, many organizations decide to standardize. What does standardization esteem in this context, and what are its potential benefits? One major goal and advantage of planning is standardization. When management decides to adopt a certain IT resource for all its units, regardless of function or location, it standardizes its IT. Benefits would be * Cost saving * streamlined training * Efficient support3. Why is traditional systems outgrowth referred to as a cycle? W hat determines the cycles hold back? Because it consists of several straightforward phases that are followed methodically, and the developers complete the phases sequentially. The SDLC approach assumes that the life of an IS starts with a need, followed by an perspicacity of the functions that a system must have to fulfill that need, and ends when the benefits of the system no longer outweigh its maintenance costs, or when the net benefit of a new system would exceed the net benefits of the current system. 4. Systems developers often use the term application development rather than systems development. Why? It involves fast development of an application based on initial substance abuser requirements and several cycles of user input and developer improvements.5. What are the benefits of using data flow diagrams? Who benefits from DFDs? The use of lonesome(prenominal) four symbols and the simplicity of DFDs are their great advantage. Those who benefit are external entities incl ude individuals and groups of people who are external to the system, such as customers, employees, other departments in the organization, or other organizations. 6. SDLC is usually recommended for developing an IS that will be interfaced to other ISs. Give two examples of an IS that is interfaced with at least two other ISs. The better known methods are Extreme Programming (XP), Adaptive package Development (ASD), Lean Development (LD), Rational Unified Process (RUP), induce Driven Development (FDD), Dynamic Systems Development Method (DSDM), Scrum, and Crystal.7. Recall the countersign of IT professionals in Chapter 1, Business Information Systems An Overview. Of the following professionals, who does the majority of the systems construction speculate the CIO, systems analyst, database administrator (DBA), or programmer? Why? Systems analyst, because it takes a specialist to contemplate and determine the type of program made to improve the system. 8. What are the advantages of mobile methods over waterfall development methods, such as the traditional SDLC? What are the risks? The differences among the methods are outside the scope of this discussion. However, the major advantage of all alert methods is that they result in fast development of applications so that users can have them within weeks rather than months or years. Users do not have to custody long for system modifications, whether they are required because of programmer errors or because users have second thoughts about some features.However, the benefits of officious methods do not come without risks. First, the analysis phase is minimal or is some time eliminated completely. Reducing or skipping a thorough formal analysis increases the risk of incompatibilities and other unlooked-for mishaps. Also, the develop-ers devote most of their time to construction and little time to documentation, so modification at a later date can be extremely time consuming, if not impossible. Because of the in herent risks, there are times when alert methods are appropriate and others when they are not.9. Why are agile methods so helpful when users cannot define system requirements? Agile methods encourage users pursuit throughout the process and encourage developers to change requirements in response to user input if needed. The purpose of agile methods is not to conform to a electrostatic contract with the users but to ensure that the users receive an application with which they are happy. Critics of agile programming in general and XP in particular argue that the relaxed approach to planning as well as ceding decision fashioning and accountability to clients (users) might result in disasters, especially if such methods are applied to large, complex projects.10. An increasing number of IS professionals prefer to call the end users of their creations customers, even if the developers and users are employees of the same organization. Why? The customers of software development, the us ers, are not an adverse party and should not be negotiated with but regarded as codevelopers and co- owners of the software. 11. What is systems consolidation?The process of linking together different computing systems and software applications physically or functionally, to act as a coordinated whole. 12. Why is systems integration more complicated when the systems involve the Web than when they do not? Systems integration is often much more complicated than systems development, because it requires the IT professionals to make different applications communicate with each other seamlessly. The complexity is multiplied when integrating ISs of several organizations that must work together over the Web. 13. The emergence of the Web as a vehicle for business increased the need for systems integration. How so? The web allows for remote door and because more legacy databases are integrated into new enterprise applications it makes for a smooth transition of data traffic.