Deck 4: Decisions-Processes

Question 1

Business-facing processes or back-office processes are invisible to the external customer but essential to the effective management and operation of the business.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

Unstructured decisions occur in situations in which no procedures or rules exist to guide decision makers towards the correct choice.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

Business processes should never drive MIS choices and should be based on business strategies and goals.

Answer 3

False

Question 4

The primary goal of an As-Is process model is to simplify,eliminate and improve the To-Be processes.

Question 5

MIS support systems rely on models for computational and analytical routines that mathematically express relationships among variables.

Question 6

Improving the efficiency and effectiveness of its business processes improves a firm's value chain.

Question 7

A neural network is a category of efficiency metrics where it attempts to measure the way the human brain works.

Question 8

Strategic planning is a customer-facing business process.

Question 9

A business management system is a graphic description of a process,showing the sequence of process tasks,which is developed for a specific purpose and from a selected viewpoint.

Question 10

At the strategic decision-making level,employees develop,control and maintain core business activities.

Question 11

Streamlining information encompasses all of the information contained within a single business process or unit of work,and its primary purpose is to support the performing of daily operational or structured decisions.

Question 12

Operational decisions or semi-structured decisions arise in situations where established processes offer potential solutions.

Question 13

Digital dashboards offer consolidation,drill-down and slice-and-dice capabilities.

Question 14

The structure of a typical organisation is similar to a pyramid,with different levels that require one consistent type of information to assist with all managerial decision making.

Question 15

Effectiveness MIS metrics include throughput,transaction speed and system availability.

Question 16

Redundancy occurs when a task or activity is never repeated.

Question 17

One of the most important and challenging questions confronting managers today is how to lay the foundation for tomorrow's success,while competing to win in today's business environment.

Question 18

Product delivery is a customer-facing business process.

Question 19

Benchmarks are baseline values the system seeks to attain.

Question 20

A shopping bot is one of the simplest examples of an intelligent agent.

Question 21

Which of the below represents the three different levels of a company pyramid from the top to the bottom?

A) Managerial-Strategic-Operational
B) Strategic-Managerial-Operational
C) Operational-Managerial-Strategic
D) Strategic-Operational-Managerial

Question 22

Which of the below is an example of a critical success factor?

A) Increase customer satisfaction
B) Number of new customers
C) Number of new products
D) Percentage of employee turnover

Question 23

What would a company like eBay or Amazon be constantly benchmarking?

A) MIS efficiency
B) MIS effectiveness
C) MIS efficiency and MIS effectiveness
D) Usability metrics only

Question 24

Andy Benton works at the local Starbucks coffee shop and his responsibilities include taking orders,fulfilling orders and ringing in sales.At what level of the organisational pyramid would you categorise Andy?

A) Strategic
B) Owner
C) Operational
D) Managerial

Question 25

Bill Schultz works at a high power investment firm in Sydney.Bill is responsible for promoting the organisation's vision and creating the company-wide goals and strategies.He also monitors the overall strategic performance of the company and its direction for future business strategies.At what level of the organisational pyramid would you categorise Bill?

A) Strategic
B) Owner
C) Operational
D) Managerial

Question 26

Business process re-engineering is the analysis and redesign of workflow within and between enterprises.

Question 27

As a manager for your company,some of your responsibilities include measuring metrics and overseeing company strategies.You observe some critical success factors and see large increases in productivity.What would you suspect would be the primary reason for the large increases in productivity?

A) Decreases in effectiveness
B) Increases in effectiveness
C) Increases in executive roles
D) Decreases in efficiency

Question 28

Which of the following is a not a type of organisational information system?

A) Executive information system
B) Decisions support system
C) Analysis processing system
D) Transactional processing system

Question 29

When evaluating the six-step decision-making process,what occurs during the solution implementation step?

A) The process will begin again if the decisions made were incorrect
B) Definition of the problem as clearly and precisely as possible
C) Details of every solution possible including ideas that seem far fetched
D) The solution that best solves the problem is selected

Question 30

Todd Haitz is the marketing manager for the Australian Cricket Association.Todd analyses and tracks his marketing campaigns to determine the best success rate per project for increasing ticket sales.Todd uses an internal KPI to track his marketing campaign success.Which of the below would be an internal KPI Todd would use to track his marketing campaigns?

A) Marketing campaign ROI
B) Marketing campaign percentage of fans purchasing Sports Illustrated magazine
C) Marketing campaign advertiser revenue sales
D) Marketing campaign market share

Question 31

Which of the following is a type of effectiveness MIS metric?

A) Transaction speed
B) System availability
C) Usability
D) Throughput

Question 32

Which of the below statements is accurate?

A) Key performance indicators can have no more than four critical success factors
B) Critical success factors can have no more than four key performance indicators
C) Key performance indicators can have several critical success factors
D) Critical success factors can have several key performance indicators

Question 33

What are the crucial steps companies perform to achieve their goals and objectives,and implement their strategies?

A) Critical success factors
B) Crucial success factors
C) Key performance indicators
D) Key performance factors

Question 34

Which of the below would you include as decisions and responsibilities typically found at the managerial level of a company?

A) Monthly plans
B) Monthly budgets
C) Weekly schedule
D) All the answers are correct

Question 35

Drew Savage is an MIS manager for an international consulting firm.Drew travels to different European countries where he implements news response tracking systems.Some of the metrics he uses to track the performance of his system include tracking the response time it takes to respond to Twitter posts mentioning the news station,as well as the speed and accuracy of content posted on numerous websites and social media sites.What type of metrics is Drew using to measure his system?

A) Customer satisfaction metrics
B) Efficiency metrics
C) Effectiveness metrics
D) Benchmarking metrics

Question 36

CSFs and KPIs are the two core metrics used within a business to track progress or success.What is the relationship between CSFs and KPIs?

A) CSFs are business strategy elements; whereas,KPIs measure the progress of the CSFs
B) CSFs build the business environment; whereas,KPIs explain how to build the CSF's
C) KPIs are used first; whereas,CSF's are applied after
D) KPIs promote employees on their performance; whereas,CSF's demote employees based on their performance level

Question 37

Review the below statements.Which one does not represent an example of a structured decision?

A) Reordering inventory
B) Deciding to enter a new market
C) Creating the employee weekly staffing schedule
D) Creating the employee weekly production schedule

Question 38

What must managers be able to do to compete in today's global marketplace?

A) Make decisions to gain competitive advantages
B) Make decision that can help forecast future business needs
C) Make decision that can help forecast future business requirements
D) All the answers are correct

Question 39

Which of the below would you include as decisions and responsibilities typically found at the operational level of a company?

A) Develop core business activities required to run the day-to-day operations
B) Control core business activities required to run the day-to-day operations
C) Maintain core business activities required to run the day-to-day operations
D) All the answers are correct

Question 40

BPM systems include advanced features such as enhanced process modelling,simulation,execution and monitoring,providing a high level of flexibility,while reducing costs.

Question 41

As the product manager for the eatery division at Whole Foods,Jerry is responsible for analysing sales data to help him manage his team.Today Jerry is analysing his data using many different perspectives to identify different ways to improve his division.Which of the following common digital dashboard capabilities is Jerry using to analyse his department's success?

A) Slice-and-Dice
B) Competitive tables
C) Drill-down
D) Consolidation

Question 42

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

A) Calculate the highest potential profits
B) Calculate employee benefit payments
C) Use this as an extension for a digital dashboard
D) Create production schedules

Question 43

Which of the below categories of artificial intelligence (AI)is used extensively in the finance industry to analyse situations where the logic or rules are unknown?

A) Expert system
B) Virtual reality
C) Neural network
D) Genetic algorithm

Question 44

Tom Watson is a manager for a McDonald's restaurant.Many of his key responsibilities include analysing data and making key decisions for the success of his store.Tom's store has been experiencing decreased sales for breakfast services over the past three months.Tom is unsure why breakfast revenues are down,while lunch and dinner revenues remain unchanged.Tom 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.Tom performs an extensive analysis of how continuous changes in breakfast promotions could impact his daily revenue.What type of DSS analysis is Tom performing?

A) Optimisation analysis
B) Sensitivity analysis
C) Transaction analysis
D) Goal-seeking analysis

Question 45

Which of the following represents the top-down (executives to analysts)organisational levels of information technology systems?

A) TPS,DSS,EIS
B) DSS,TPS,EIS
C) EIS,DSS,TPS
D) None of these,it varies from organisation to organisation

Question 46

What is the process of learning from ecosystems and adapting their characteristics to human and organisation situations?

A) Data collection
B) Artificial intelligence
C) Biomimicry
D) Intelligent system

Question 47

What is drill-down capability?

A) Involves the aggregation of information and features simple roll-ups to complex groupings of interrelated information
B) The ability to look at information from different perspectives
C) Enables users to get details,and details of details,of information
D) Finds the inputs necessary to achieve a goal such as a desired level of output

Question 48

Which of the following is an example of an intelligent system?

A) The Firefighter Robot that can extinguish flames at chemical plants
B) Shell Oil's Smart Pump robot that pumps gas for the customer
C) A robot that cleans and sweeps at a local airport
D) All the answers are correct

Question 49

What type of process includes order processing,customer service processing,sales processing,customer billing processing,and order shipping processing?

A) Customer-facing processes
B) Business-facing processes
C) Industry-specific customer facing processes
D) All the answers are correct

Question 50

What is consolidation?

A) Involves the aggregation of information and features simple roll-ups to complex groupings of interrelated information
B) The ability to look at information from different perspectives
C) Enables users to get details,and details of details,of information
D) Finds the inputs necessary to achieve a goal such as a desired level of output

Question 51

Which of the following represents a business process you would find in the operations management department?

A) Ordering inventory
B) Processing sales
C) Promoting discounts
D) Paying of accounts payable

Question 52

As the product manager for the eatery division at Whole Foods,Jerry is responsible for analysing sales data to help him manage his team.Today Jerry is analysing 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 Jerry using to analyse his department's success?

A) Slice-and-Dice
B) Competitive tables
C) Drill-down
D) Consolidation

Question 53

Which of the below offers a disadvantage for working virtually?

A) Increases in worker productivity
B) Increases in feelings of seclusion
C) Decreases in expenses for the company
D) Alleviation of congested roadways

Question 54

How does a DSS typically differ from an EIS?

A) EIS requires data from external sources to support unstructured decisions where a DSS typically uses internal sources to support semi-structured decisions
B) DSS typically uses external sources and EIS uses internal sources to support decisions
C) A DSS never uses external sources
D) EIS always uses internal sources to support structured decisions

Question 55

What form of processes include loan processing for a bank,claims processing for an insurance company,reservation processing for a hotel and baggage handling for an airline?

A) Customer-facing processes
B) Business-facing processes
C) Industry-specific customer-facing processes
D) All the answers are correct

Question 56

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

A) Employee time sheets
B) Employee benefit reports
C) Employee wage rates
D) All the answers are correct

Question 57

What can a model accomplish?

A) Calculate risks
B) Understand uncertainty
C) Manipulate time
D) All the answers are correct

Question 58

What is slice-and-dice capability?

A) Involves the aggregation of information and features simple roll-ups to complex groupings of interrelated information
B) The ability to look at information from different perspectives
C) Enables users to get details,and details of details,of information
D) Finds the inputs necessary to achieve a goal such as a desired level of output

Question 59

A transaction processing system (TPS)is the basic business system that assists operational level analysts when making structured decisions.Which of the below is not an example of a TPS?

A) Target's internal company payroll system
B) Comfort Dental patient diagnosis system
C) First Bank's overall accounting system
D) Stewart Sport's order entry system

Question 60

Bob Silver loves playing a game called World of Warcraft where he has the capability to create his own character and even his own life-like environment.Which AI system would you categorise World of Warcraft?

A) Multi-agent system
B) Expert system
C) Virtual reality
D) Fuzzy logic system

Question 61

What is the system that focuses on evaluating and improving the processes that include both person-to-person workflow and system-to-system communications?

A) Business process management (BPM)systems
B) Semi-structured systems
C) Virtual reality
D) All the answers are correct

Question 62

Which of the following explains why a company would implement a BPR strategy?

A) To encourage competition
B) To decrease customers
C) To create value for the customer
D) All the answers are correct

Question 63

Describe business process management and its value to an organisation.

Question 64

Demonstrate the value of business process modeling,and compare As-Is and To-Be models.

Question 65

What does BPR assume about the current process in the extreme?

A) Current process is irrelevant
B) Current process is broken
C) Current process must be overhauled from scratch
D) All the answers are correct

Question 66

Which of the below processes attempts to understand and measure the current process and make improvements?

A) Business process mapping
B) Business process re-engineering
C) Business process improvement
D) Business process model

Question 67

Which of the following should a business follow for success?

A) Technology choices should drive business processes
B) Business processes should drive technology choices
C) Technology choices should drive business strategies and goals
D) All the answers are correct,depending on the industry

Question 68

Describe artificial intelligence,and identify its five main types.

Question 69

The local florist in town is Cheryl Steffan who has been in business for over 20 years.Recently,Cheryl has noticed several complaints about delivery errors.Cheryl decides to investigate the errors in her business delivery process and finds that most of the inaccuracies occur during order taking.Cheryl decides to implement an electronic ordering system to help improve order efficiency and effectiveness.What method did Cheryl follow to solve her delivery issues?

A) Modelled the As-Is process,fixed the errors and then created the To-Be process
B) Modelled the To-Be process,fixed the errors and then created the As-Is process
C) Moved directly to implementing the To-Be process,without analysing the As-Is process
D) Moved directly to implementing the As-Is process,without analysing the To-Be process

Question 70

Which of the below examples indicates when the time is right to initiate a business process change?

A) The market being served makes a distinctive shift
B) The company is below industry benchmarks on its core processes
C) The company strategically passes or leapfrogs the competition on key decisions to regain competitive advantage
D) All the answers are correct

Question 71

Classify the different operational support systems,managerial support systems and strategic support systems,and explain how managers can use these systems to make decisions and gain competitive advantages.

Question 72

What is the difference between customer-facing processes and business-facing processes?

A) Business-facing processes are front-office processes,customer-facing processes are back-office processes
B) Customer-facing processes are front-office processes,business-facing processes are back-office processes
C) Customer-facing processes are back-office processes,and industry-specific customer-facing processes are back-office processes
D) Customer-facing processes are back-office processes,and industry-specific customer-facing processes are front-office processes

Question 73

Explain the value of business processes for a company,and differentiate between customer-facing and business-facing process.

Question 74

Explain the importance of decision making for managers at each of the three primary organisation levels along with the associated decision characteristics.

Question 75

Differentiate among business process improvements,streamlining and re-engineering.

Question 76

What is the primary goal of using As-Is and To-Be process models?

A) To determine employee specific errors
B) To determine measurement metrics
C) To determine the best way to solve a problem
D) To determine what the problem is and then how to solve the problem

Question 77

What is the primary goal of the As-Is process model?

A) To outline the process elements for the To-Be process
B) To create process choices for the As-Is process
C) To simplify,eliminate and improve the To-Be process
D) To analyse the To-Be process elements

Question 78

Review the below list of key terms and determine which one typically occurs during operational business process improvement.

A) Automation
B) Streamlining
C) Re-engineering
D) Improvement

Question 79

Define critical success factors (CSFs)and key performance indicators (KPIs),and explain how managers use them to measure the success of MIS projects.

Question 80

What is the difference between the As-Is process model and the To-Be process model?

A) The As-Is process model begins with what the process problem is,and the To-Be process model displays how the problem will be solved
B) The process models are not related
C) Both process models determine when to solve the problem
D) The As-Is process model begins with where to implement the solution,and the To-Be process model displays why the problem needs to be fixed