Deck 9: Data Warehousing

Question 1

All of the following are limitations of the independent data mart EXCEPT:

A) separate extraction, transformation, and loading processes are developed for each data mart.
B) data marts may not be consistent with one another.
C) there is no capability to drill down into greater detail in other data marts.
D) it is often more expedient to build a data mart than a data warehouse.

Answer 1

D

Question 2

The real-time data warehouse is characterized by which of the following?

A) It accepts near-real time feeds of transaction data.
B) Data are immediately transformed and loaded into the warehouse.
C) It provides near-real-time access for the transaction processing systems to an enterprise data warehouse.
D) All of the above

Answer 2

D

Question 3

Which of the following factors drive the need for data warehousing?

A) Businesses need an integrated view of company information.
B) Informational data must be kept together with operational data.
C) Data warehouses generally have better security.
D) None of the above

Answer 3

A

Question 4

When we consider data in the data warehouse to be time-variant,we mean:

A) that the time of storage varies.
B) data in the warehouse contain a time dimension so that they may be used to study trends and changes.
C) that there is a time delay between when data are posted and when we report on the data.
D) none of the above.

Question 5

The characteristic that indicates that a data warehouse is organized around key high-level entities of the enterprise is:

A) subject-oriented.
B) integrated.
C) time-variant.
D) nonvolatile.

Question 6

A dependent data mart:

A) is filled with data extracted directly from the operational system.
B) is filled exclusively from the enterprise data warehouse with reconciled data.
C) is dependent upon an operational system.
D) participates in a relationship with an entity.

Question 7

One characteristic of independent data marts is complexity for end users when they need to access data in separate data marts.This complexity is caused by not only having to access data from separate databases,but also from:

A) the possibility of a new generation of inconsistent data systems, the data marts themselves.
B) lack of user training.
C) denormalized data.
D) incongruent data formats.

Question 8

Data that are detailed,current,and intended to be the single,authoritative source of all decision support applications are called ________ data.

A) reconciled
B) subject
C) derived
D) detailed

Question 9

All of the following are some beneficial applications for real-time data warehousing EXCEPT:

A) just-in-time transportation.
B) e-commerce. For example, an abandoned shopping cart can trigger an email promotional message.
C) fraud detection in credit card transactions.
D) data entry.

Question 10

Which of the following organizational trends does not encourage the need for data warehousing?

A) Multiple, nonsynchronized systems
B) Focus on customer relationship management
C) Downsizing
D) Focus on supplier relationship management

Question 11

All of the following are unique characteristics of a logical data mart EXCEPT:

A) logical data marts are not physically separate databases, but rather a relational view of a data warehouse.
B) the data mart is always up-to-date since data in a view is created when the view is referenced.
C) the process of creating a logical data mart is lengthy.
D) data are moved into the data warehouse rather than a separate staging area.

Question 12

A data mart is a(n):

A) enterprisewide data warehouse.
B) smaller system built upon file processing technology.
C) data warehouse that is limited in scope.
D) generic on-line shopping site.

Question 13

A logical data mart is a(n):

A) data mart consisting of only logical data.
B) data mart created by a relational view of a slightly denormalized data warehouse.
C) integrated, subject-oriented, detailed database designed to serve operational users.
D) centralized, integrated data warehouse.

Question 14

The analysis of summarized data to support decision making is called:

A) operational processing.
B) informational processing.
C) artificial intelligence.
D) data scrubbing.

Question 15

Which of the following advances in information systems contributed to the emergence of data warehousing?

A) Improvements in database technology, particularly the relational data model
B) Advances in computer hardware, especially affordable mass storage and parallel computer architectures
C) Advances in middleware products that enabled enterprise database connectivity across heterogeneous platforms
D) All of the above

Question 16

Informational systems are designed for all of the following EXCEPT:

A) running a business in real time.
B) supporting decision making.
C) complex queries.
D) data mining.

Question 17

Operational and informational systems are generally separated because of which of the following factors?

A) A data warehouse centralizes data that are scattered throughout disparate operational systems and makes them readily available for decision support applications.
B) A properly designed data warehouse adds value to data by improving their quality and consistency.
C) A separate data warehouse eliminates contention for resources that results when informational applications are confounded with operational processing.
D) All of the above

Question 18

A database action that results from a transaction is called a(n):

A) transition.
B) event.
C) log entry.
D) journal happening.

Question 19

________ technologies are allowing more opportunities for real-time data warehouses.

A) Web
B) MOLAP
C) RFID
D) GPS

Question 20

An operational data store (ODS)is a(n):

A) place to store all unreconciled data.
B) representation of the operational data.
C) integrated, subject-oriented, updateable, current-valued, detailed database designed to serve the decision support needs of operational users.
D) small-scale data mart.

Question 21

The level of detail in a fact table determined by the intersection of all the components of the primary key,including all foreign keys and any other primary key elements,is called the:

A) span.
B) grain.
C) selection.
D) aggregation.

Question 22

Advances in computer hardware,particularly the emergence of affordable mass storage and parallel computer architectures,was one of the key advances that led to the emergence of data warehousing.

Question 23

Which of the following data-mining techniques searches for patterns and correlations in large data sets?

A) Case reasoning
B) Rule discovery
C) Signal processing
D) Neural nets

Question 24

Every key used to join the fact table with a dimension table should be a ________ key.

A) primary
B) surrogate
C) foreign
D) secondary

Question 25

Which of the following is true of data visualization?

A) It is easier to observe trends and patterns in data.
B) Correlations and clusters in data can be easily identified.
C) It is often used in conjunction with data mining.
D) All of the above.

Question 26

The use of a set of graphical tools that provides users with multidimensional views of their data is called:

A) on-line geometrical processing (OGP).
B) drill-down analysis.
C) on-line analytical processing (OLAP).
D) on-line datacube processing (ODP).

Question 27

Going from a summary view to progressively lower levels of detail is called data:

A) cubing.
B) drill-down.
C) dicing.
D) pivoting.

Question 28

Conformed dimensions allow users to do the following:

A) share nonkey dimension data.
B) query across fact tables with consistency.
C) work on facts and business subjects for which all users have the same meaning.
D) all of the above.

Question 29

OLAP tools that use the database as a traditional relational database are called:

A) ROLAP tools.
B) MOLAP tools.
C) slice and dice.
D) none of the above.

Question 30

Data that are never physically altered once they are added to the store are called ________ data.

A) transient
B) override
C) periodic
D) complete

Question 31

The development of the relational data model did not contribute to the emergence of data warehousing.

Question 32

Rotating the view of a multidimensional database for a particular data point is called data:

A) cubing.
B) drill-down.
C) dicing.
D) pivoting.

Question 33

________ is/are a new technology which trade(s)off storage space savings for computing time.

A) Dimensional modeling
B) Column databases
C) Fact tables
D) Snowflake schemas

Question 34

Factless fact tables may apply when:

A) we are tracking events.
B) we are tracking sales.
C) we are taking inventory of the set of possible occurrences.
D) both A and C.

Question 35

An expanded version of a star schema in which all of the tables are fully normalized is called a(n):

A) snowflake schema.
B) operational schema.
C) DSS schema.
D) complete schema.

Question 36

Which of the following data mining applications identifies customers for promotional activity?

A) Population profiling
B) Target marketing
C) Usage analysis
D) Product affinity

Question 37

Which of the following is an objective of derived data?

A) Ease of use for decision support systems
B) Faster response time for user queries
C) Support data mining applications
D) All of the above

Question 38

Which of the following data mining techniques identifies clusters of observations with similar characteristics?

A) Case reasoning
B) Rule discovery
C) Clustering and signal processing
D) Neural nets

Question 39

A star schema contains both fact and ________ tables.

A) narrative
B) cross functional
C) dimension
D) starter

Question 40

All of the following are ways to handle changing dimensions EXCEPT:

A) overwrite the current value with the new value.
B) for each dimension attribute that changes, create a current value field and as many old value fields as we wish.
C) create a new dimension table row each time the dimension object changes.
D) create a snowflake schema.

Question 41

Organizations adopt data mart architectures because it is easier to have separate,small data warehouses than to get all organizational parties to agree to one view of the organization in a central data warehouse.

Question 42

An independent data mart is filled with data extracted from the operational environment without the benefit of a data warehouse.

Question 43

An operational data store is typically a relational database and normalized,but it is tuned for decision-making applications.

Question 44

A dependent data mart is filled from the enterprise data warehouse and its reconciled data.

Question 45

An enterprise data warehouse that accepts near-real time feeds of transactional data and immediately transforms and loads the appropriate data is called a real-time data warehouse.

Question 46

An enterprise data warehouse is the control point and single source of all data made available to end users for decision support applications.

Question 47

Operational metadata are derived from the enterprise data model.

Question 48

An operational data store typically holds a history of snapshots of the state of an organization whereas an enterprise data warehouse does not typically contain history.

Question 49

Reconciled data are data that have been selected,formatted,and aggregated for end-user decision support applications.

Question 50

An operational data store (ODS)is not designed for use by operational users.

Question 51

A separate data warehouse causes more contention for resources in an organization.

Question 52

Logical data marts are physically separate databases from the enterprise data warehouse.

Question 53

Independent data marts do not generally lead to redundant data and efforts.

Question 54

The need for data warehousing in an organization is driven by its need for an integrated view of high-quality data.

Question 55

A data mart is a data warehouse that contains data that can be used across the entire organization.

Question 56

Informational systems are designed to support decision making based on historical point-in-time and prediction data.

Question 57

When multiple systems in an organization are synchronized,the need for data warehousing increases.

Question 58

A corporate information factory (CIF)is a comprehensive view of organizational data in support of all user data requirements.

Question 59

Scalable technology is critical to a data mart.

Question 60

The enterprise data model controls the phased evolution of the data warehouse.

Question 61

For performance reasons,it may be necessary to define more than one fact table for a star schema.

Question 62

The grain of a data warehouse indicates the size and depth of the records.

Question 63

There are applications for fact tables without any nonkey data,only the foreign keys for the associated dimensions.

Question 64

Transient data are never changed.

Question 65

The first requirement for building a user-friendly interface is a set of metadata that describes the data in the data mart in business terms that users can easily understand.

Question 66

The status of data is the representation of the data after an event has occurred.

Question 67

A system that is used to support decision making based on stable,point-in-time or historical data is called a(n)________ system.

Question 68

The representation of data in a graphical format is called data mining.

Question 69

Periodic data are data that are never physically altered or deleted once they have been added to the store.

Question 70

A data warehouse can be defined as a(n)________,________,________,________ collection of data used in support of management decision-making processes.

Question 71

A conformed dimension is one or more dimension tables associated with only one fact table.

Question 72

Rule discovery searches for patterns and correlations in large data sets.

Question 73

A system that is used to run a business in real time,based on current data is called a(n)________ system.

Question 74

When a dimension participates in a hierarchy,the database designer can normalize the dimension into a nested set of tables with 1:M relationships between them.

Question 75

A fact table holds descriptive data about the business.

Question 76

Multidimensional OLAP (MOLAP)tools use variations of SQL and view the database as a relational database,in either a star schema or other normalized or denormalized set of tables.

Question 77

Improvements in database technology,particularly the development of the ________,led to the emergence of data warehousing.

Question 78

Drill-down involves analyzing a given set of data at a finer level of detail.

Question 79

A snowflake schema is usually heavily aggregated.

Question 80

An event is a database action that results from a transaction.