Deck 2: Data Warehousing

Question 1

A data warehouse needs to support scalability, which pertains to the amount of data in the warehouse, how quickly the warehouse is expected to grow, the number of concurrent users, and the complexity of user queries.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

The data for an oper mart come from an ODS.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

Because of performance and data quality issues, most experts agree that federated approaches work well to replace data warehouses.

Answer 3

False

Question 4

There are many metaware tools that business users can use to access data stored in the data repositories, including data mining, reporting tools, and data visualization.

Question 5

Effectiveness, extensibility, reusability, interoperability, efficiency and performance, evolution, entitlement, flexibility, segregation, user interface, versioning, versatility, and low maintenance cost are some of the key requirements for building a successful metadata-driven enterprise.

Question 6

A real-time data warehouse together with a decision support system that leverages integrated data can provide significant financial benefits for an organization.

Question 7

According to conventional wisdom, independent data marts are a poor architectural solution.

Question 8

Before implementing an active data warehouse solution, DirecTV pulled data from the server every night in batch mode, a process that was taking too long and straining the system.

Question 9

An independent data mart is a small warehouse designed for a strategic business unit (SBU) or a department whose source is an EDW.

Question 10

ETL tools transport data between sources and targets, document how data elements change as they move between source and target, exchange metadata with other applications, and administer all runtime processes and operations.

Question 11

In a three-tier architecture, operational systems contain the data and the software for data acquisition in the first tier, the data warehouse is a second tier, and the third tier includes the DSS/BI/BA engine.

Question 12

There are several levels of metadata management maturity that describe where an organization is in terms of how and how well it uses its metadata.

Question 13

A data warehouse maintains historical data that do not necessarily provide current status, except in real-time systems.

Question 14

Operational data store is used for the medium- and long-term decisions associated with the enterprise data warehouse (EDW).

Question 15

The centralized data warehouse helps to simplify data management and administration and reduce data redundancy.

Question 16

A data warehouse differs from an operational database in that most data warehouses have a product orientation and are designed to handle transactions that update the database.

Question 17

Once the data are entered into the data warehouse, users cannot change or update the data.

Question 18

There are three main types of data warehouses, which are data marts, operational data stores, and enterprise data warehouses.

Question 19

There are ethical considerations involved in the collection and ownership of the information contained in
metadata, including privacy and intellectual property issues.

Question 20

A hosted data warehouse has less functionality than an onsite data warehouse, but it does not consume computer resources on client premises for computer upgrades, software licenses, in-house development, and in-house support and maintenance.

Question 21

ETL process consists of extract, transform, and load. Transformation occurs by using ________ or lookup tables or by combining the data with other data.

A) rules
B) policies
C) strategies
D) procedures

Question 22

Once data are entered into the warehouse, users cannot change or update the data. Obsolete data are discarded, and changes are recorded as new data. This ________ characteristic is one of the characteristics of data warehousing.

A) changeable
B) nonvolatile
C) nonperishable
D) static

Question 23

Which of the following are created when operational data need to be analyzed multidimensionally?

A) Oper marts
B) Customer information file
C) Dependent data marts
D) Independent data marts

Question 24

The advantage of three-tier architecture for data warehousing is its separation of the functions of the data warehouse, which eliminates resource constraints and makes it possible to easily create data ________.

A) banks
B) cubes
C) bases
D) marts

Question 25

Which of the following is one of the components of data warehousing process that enables users to access the data warehouse?

A) Middleware tools
B) Users interface
C) Query tools
D) OLAP

Question 26

Karacsony indicates that there is a direct correlation between the extent of ________ data and the amount of ETL processes. When data are managed correctly as an enterprise asset, ETL efforts are significantly reduced.

A) enormous
B) bad
C) redundant
D) wrong

Question 27

When DirectTV decided to implement an active data warehouse solution, the goal of the new system was to send fresh data to the call center at least daily. Once the capabilities of the solutions became apparent, that goal:

A) dropped to fresh data of less than 15 minutes to improve responsiveness.
B) dropped to fresh data every 12 hours to improve responsiveness.
C) increased to every 2 days to reduce maintenance costs.
D) increased to every 5 days to reduce maintenance costs.

Question 28

The ________ have inconsistent data definitions and different dimensions and measures, making it difficult to analyze data across those marts.

A) enterprise data marts
B) operational data marts
C) dependent data marts
D) independent data marts

Question 29

Users demanding access via PDAs and through speech recognition and synthesis is becoming more commonplace, further complicating ________ issues.

A) data extraction
B) data load
C) data integration
D) OLAP

Question 30

A data warehouse contains ________ about how data are organized and how to use them effectively.

A) a data directory
B) a data index
C) data fields
D) metadata

Question 31

Which of the following is not a direct benefit of a data warehouse?

A) End users can perform extensive analysis in numerous ways.
B) A consolidated view of the data provides a single version of the truth.
C) Simplified data access
D) Improved customer service and satisfaction

Question 32

Which of the following is not one of the failure factors in data warehousing?

A) Cultural issues are ignored.
B) inappropriate architecture
C) unrealistic expectations
D) high levels of data summarization

Question 33

A star schema contains a central ________ surrounded by several dimension tables.

A) database
B) fact table
C) data tree
D) data table

Question 34

________ is a critical aspect of data warehousing that includes reconciling conflicting data definitions and formats organization-wide.

A) Data modification
B) Fact refinement
C) Data purification
D) Data cleansing

Question 35

Guidelines that need to be considered when developing a vendor list include all of the following except:

A) financial strength
B) trade shows
C) ERP linkages
D) market share

Question 36

The high cost of data warehouses limits their use to large companies. As an alternative, many firms use a lower-cost, scaled-down version of a data warehouse referred to as (an) ________.

A) data mart
B) operational data store
C) dependent data mart
D) independent data mart

Question 37

Which of the following is not a data source to a data warehouse?

A) ERP
B) Legacy
C) POS
D) ETL

Question 38

Which of the following is needed to determine how data are to be retrieved from a data warehouse, and will assist in the physical definition of the warehouse by helping to define which data require indexing?

A) Indexing modeling
B) Retrieval modeling
C) Access modeling
D) Tactic modeling

Question 39

Data warehouse is a(n) ________, integrated, time-variant, nonvolatile collection of data in support of management's decision making process.

A) analysis-oriented
B) object-oriented
C) subject-oriented
D) model-oriented

Question 40

Which of the following is an evolving tool space that promises real-time data integration from a variety of sources, such as relational databases, Web services, and multidimensional databases?

A) Information integration
B) Data management integration
C) SQL data integration
D) Enterprise information integration (EII)

Question 41

________ provides a fairly recent form of customer information files (CIF). It is a type of database often used as an interim staging area for a data warehouse.

Question 42

The ________ is a scaled-down version of the data warehouse that centers on the requests of a specific department, such as marketing or sales.

Question 43

Data often are fragmented in distinct operational systems, so managers often make decisions with partial information at best. ________ cuts through this obstacle by accessing, integrating, and organizing key operational data in a form that is consistent, reliable, timely, and readily available where needed.

Question 44

Once the data are properly stored in a data warehouse, that data can be used in various ways to support organizational ________.

Question 45

The data warehouse design is based upon the concept of ________ modeling, which is a retrieval-based model that supports high-volume query access.

Question 46

An ________ is a large-scale data warehouse that is utilized across the enterprise for decision support.

Question 47

A(n) ________ data warehouse has nearly the same, if not more, functionality as an on-site data warehouse, but it does not consume computer resources on client premises.

Question 48

A(n) ________ contains the attributes needed to perform decision analysis, descriptive attributes used for query reporting, and foreign keys to link to dimension tables.

Question 49

________ is the process of loading and provides data via the data warehouse as they become available.

Question 50

During data modeling, expertise is required to determine what data are needed, define business rules associated with the data, and decide what ________ and other calculations may be necessary.

Question 51

________ is a subset that is created directly from the data warehouse. It has the advantages of using a consistent data model and providing quality data.

Question 52

EII (enterprise information integration) tools use predefined metadata to populate views that make integrated data appear relational to end-users. ________ may be the most important aspect of EII, because it allows data to be tagged either at the time of creation or later.

Question 53

In three-tier architecture for data warehouse, ________ contain the data and the software for data acquisition in one tier, the data warehouse is another tier, and the third tier includes the decision support and the client.

Question 54

________ is a small data warehouse designed for a strategic business unit (SBU) or a department.

Question 55

________ comprises three major processes that, when correctly implemented, permits data to be accessed and made accessible to an array of ETL and analysis tools and data warehousing environment.

Question 56

The main issues pertaining to ________ are the amount of data in the warehouse, how quickly the warehouse is expected to grow, the number of concurrent users, and the complexity of user queries.

Question 57

One of the benefits of a well-designed data warehouse is that business rules can be stored in a ________ repository and applied to the data warehouse centrally.

Question 58

________ is the person responsible for the administration and management of a data warehouse.

Question 59

A data warehouse contains numerous ________ that define such things as how the data will be used, summarization rules, standardization of encoded attributes, and calculation rules.

Question 60

The ________ is a concession to the natural forces that undermine the best plans for developing a perfect system. It uses all possible means to integrate analytical resources from multiple sources to meet changing needs or business conditions.

Question 61

Describe the major components of the data warehousing process.

Question 62

List five factors that potentially affect the architecture selection decision.

Question 63

Describe various integration technologies that enable data and metadata integration.

Question 64

What are the issues to consider when deciding which architecture for data warehousing to use?

Question 65

List four fundamental characteristics of a data warehouse.

Question 66

Describe or sketch two alternative architectures to the basic architectural design types in data warehousing.

Question 67

List five benefits of a hosted data warehouse.

Question 68

Identify five data warehouse best practices.

Question 69

Describe a star schema.

Question 70

Describe various issues that affect whether an organization will purchase data transformation tools or build the transformation process itself.