Question 1

What is a common tool that is used to support visualizations and tracks KPIs and CSFs by compiling information from multiple sources?

Accepted Answer

Digital dashboards are commonly used to support visualizations and track Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and Critical Success Factors (CSFs) by compiling information from multiple sources. They provide a centralized, interactive means to monitor metrics and data points.

Question 2

Tanner Wright is a manager for a McDonald's restaurant. Many of his key responsibilities include analyzing data and making key decisions for the success of his store. Tanner's store has been experiencing decreased sales for breakfast services over the past three months. Tanner is unsure why breakfast revenues are down while lunch and dinner revenues remain unchanged. Tanner believes that he can drive revenue up by implementing a few different breakfast promotions such as free coffee or hash browns with the purchase of a meal. Tanner performs an extensive analysis of how continuous changes in breakfast promotions could impact his daily revenue. What type of DSS analysis is Tanner performing?

Accepted Answer

Sensitivity analysis is used to understand how different values of an independent variable affect a particular dependent variable under a given set of assumptions. Tanner is analyzing how various breakfast promotions (independent variables) could impact his daily revenue (dependent variable), making it a sensitivity analysis.

Question 3

Target is a large corporation operating in all 50 states. Lon MacChruim is the regional manager overseeing the western division, which includes Utah, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, and Nevada. Lon receives data from his managers in each state which he loads into his digital dashboard for analysis of his entire western division. What digital dashboard capability is Lon primarily using?

Accepted Answer

Consolidation is the correct answer because Lon is combining data from multiple sources (the different states he oversees) into a single digital dashboard for analysis of his entire western division. This process of merging data for a comprehensive view is known as consolidation.

Question 4

What is the analysis that works in reverse to what-if and sensitivity analyses by finding the inputs necessary to achieve a goal such as a desired level of output?

Accepted Answer

Goal-seeking analysis works by determining the input values needed to achieve a specific goal or target output, effectively working in reverse compared to what-if and sensitivity analyses which explore the effects of changing inputs on an output.

Question 5

Decision making at the executive or strategic level requires business intelligence and knowledge to support the uncertainty and complexity of the business. What is a specialized DSS that supports senior-level executives and unstructured decisions requiring judgment, evaluation, and insight?

Accepted Answer

Executive Information Systems (EIS) are specialized Decision Support Systems designed specifically to support senior-level executives within the organization. They help in making unstructured decisions that require judgment, evaluation, and insight by providing easy access to both internal and external information relevant to meeting the strategic goals of the organization.

Question 6

Which of the following represent the four main DSS analysis techniques outlined in the chapter?

Accepted Answer

What-if analysis, sensitivity analysis, goal-seeking analysis, and optimization analysis are the four main DSS (Decision Support System) analysis techniques. These techniques help in evaluating different scenarios and outcomes based on varying inputs and conditions, making them crucial for decision-making processes.

Question 7

How does a DSS typically differ from an EIS?

Accepted Answer

An EIS (Executive Information System) is designed to help senior executives make strategic decisions by providing relevant external and internal information in a highly summarized and convenient form. A DSS (Decision Support System), on the other hand, is used to assist in making semi-structured decisions, often incorporating both internal and external data sources, but it is more focused on the use of internal data compared to an EIS.

Question 8

Which of the following would not be found in a digital dashboard for a manufacturing team?

Accepted Answer

The answer of Which of the following would not be...

Question 9

As the product manager for the eatery division at BJ's Wholesale Club, Raphael is responsible for analyzing sales data to help him manage his team. Today Raphael is analyzing his data by looking at details, and details of details of information. Which of the following common digital dashboard capabilities is Raphael using to analyze his departments success?

Accepted Answer

Drill-down capability allows users to view details and further details of the information, which is what Raphael is doing by analyzing sales data in depth.

Question 10

Executives of a company deal less with details of the operational activities and deal more with the higher meaningful aggregations of information or "coarser" information. What refers to the level of detail in the model?

Accepted Answer

Granularity refers to the level of detail or depth of the data stored in a database or a dataset. In the context of information systems and business intelligence, higher granularity means more detailed data, while lower granularity means more summarized or aggregated data. Executives typically deal with lower granularity (more aggregated) information to make strategic decisions.

Question 11

Which of the following is the most commonly used form of AI in the business arena?

Accepted Answer

Expert systems are the most commonly used form of AI in the business arena because they are designed to mimic the decision-making abilities of a human expert, making them highly valuable for businesses in areas such as customer service, diagnostics, and decision support.

Question 12

Which of the following is offered by a digital dashboard?

Accepted Answer

Digital dashboards offer features such as consolidation (combining data), drill-down (viewing data in detail), and slice-and-dice (looking at data from different perspectives), making all of these choices correct.

Question 13

When viewing systems thinking, source documents are the original transaction records. What would the source documents for a medical doctor's payroll system include?

Accepted Answer

All of these choices are correct because source documents in a payroll system would include employee time sheets (to calculate hours worked), employee benefit reports (to account for deductions or contributions), and employee wage rates (to determine the amount of pay). These documents are essential for accurately processing payroll.

Question 14

Online transaction processing (OLTP) and online analytical processing (OLAP) are similar MIS strategies used to help with business decision making. What is the primary difference between OLTP and OLAP?

Accepted Answer

OLTP (Online Transaction Processing) systems are designed to handle large volumes of routine, structured transactions. They are used at the operational level of an organization to capture and store transactional data (e.g., sales, payroll, inventory). OLAP (Online Analytical Processing) systems, on the other hand, are used for complex analysis of data, often to support decision-making at the managerial or strategic level. OLAP tools allow users to perform multidimensional analysis of aggregated data, supporting semistructured or unstructured decisions. Therefore, all the choices correctly describe the primary differences between OLTP and OLAP systems.

Question 15

What is a category of AI that attempts to emulate the way the human brain works?

Accepted Answer

Neural networks are designed to simulate the way the human brain operates, using layers of nodes to process data in complex ways, making them a category of AI that attempts to emulate human brain function.

Question 16

An optimization analysis finds the optimum value for a target variable by repeatedly changing other variables, subject to specified constraints. What can a manager achieve by changing revenue and cost variables in an optimization analysis?

Accepted Answer

By changing revenue and cost variables in an optimization analysis, a manager can calculate the highest potential profits, as these variables directly impact the profit equation.

Question 17

As the product manager for the eatery division at BJ's Wholesale Club, Raphael is responsible for analyzing sales data to help him manage his team. Today Raphael is analyzing his data using aggregation techniques allowing him to see simple roll-ups to complex groupings of interrelated information. Which of the following common digital dashboard capabilities is Raphael using to analyze his departments success?

Accepted Answer

Consolidation is the correct answer because it involves the aggregation of data, which allows for the combination of data from various sources into a single dataset. This technique is used for creating simple roll-ups to complex groupings of interrelated information, fitting the description of Raphael's activities.

Question 18

What is a graphical display of patterns and complex relationships in large amounts of data?

Accepted Answer

Visualization is the process of representing data graphically to show patterns and complex relationships in large amounts of data, making it easier to understand and analyze.

Question 19

As the product manager for the eatery division at BJ's Wholesale Club, Raphael is responsible for analyzing sales data to help him manage his team. Today Raphael is analyzing his data using many different perspectives to identify different ways to improve his division. Which of the following common digital dashboard capabilities is Raphael using to analyze his department's success?

Accepted Answer

Slice-and-Dice is a capability that allows users to view data from different perspectives, which is what Raphael is doing to analyze his department's success.

Question 20

What is the DSS analysis that checks the impact of a change in a variable or assumption on the model?

Accepted Answer

The answer of What is the DSS analysis that checks...

Quiz 9: Enabling the Organizationdecision Making