Deck 1: An Overview of Business Intelligence, Analytics, and Decision Support

Question 1

Many business users in the 1980s referred to their mainframes as "the black hole," because all the information went into it,but little ever came back and ad hoc real-time querying was virtually impossible.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

The complexity of today's business environment creates many new challenges for organizations,such as global competition,but creates few new opportunities in return.

Answer 2

False

Question 3

The success of BI is assured not because of which personnel would be the most likely to use it,but as a result of pervasive adoption across the organization.

Answer 3

False

Question 4

The use of statistics in baseball by the Oakland Athletics,as described in the Moneyball case study,is an example of the effectiveness of prescriptive analytics.

Question 5

Volume,velocity,and variety of data characterize the Big Data paradigm.

Question 6

Information systems that support such transactions as ATM withdrawals,bank deposits,and cash register scans at the grocery store represent transaction processing,a critical branch of BI.

Question 7

One of the four components of BI systems,business performance management,is a collection of source data in the data warehouse.

Question 8

The overwhelming majority of competitive actions taken by businesses today feature computerized information system support.

Question 9

The two critical partnerships required for BI governance are (a)a partnership between functional area users and/or product/service area employees,and (b)a partnership between representatives of the marketing and vendor sides.

Question 10

Computerized support is only used for organizational decisions that are responses to external pressures,not for taking advantage of opportunities.

Question 11

The access to data and ability to manipulate data (frequently including real-time data)are key elements of business intelligence (BI)systems.

Question 12

The use of dashboards and data visualizations is seldom effective in finding efficiencies in organizations,as demonstrated by the Seattle Children's Hospital Case Study.

Question 13

The term intelligence in a BI context is used to describe clandestine operations dedicated to stealing corporate secrets,in the manner of the government's CIA and other covert agencies.

Question 14

Pushing programming out to distributed data is achieved solely by using the Hadoop Distributed File System or HDFS.

Question 15

BI represents a bold new paradigm in which the company's business strategy must be aligned to its business intelligence analysis initiatives.

Question 16

In addition to deploying business intelligence (BI)systems,companies may also perform other actions to counter business pressures,such as improving customer service and entering business alliances.

Question 17

Traditional BI systems use a large volume of static data that has been extracted,cleansed,and loaded into a data warehouse to produce reports and analyses.

Question 18

Actionable intelligence is the primary goal of modern-day Business Intelligence (BI)systems vs.historical reporting that characterized Management Information Systems (MIS).

Question 19

Almost all BI applications are constructed with shells provided by an outsourcing provider who may themselves create a custom solution for a vendor or work with another client.

Question 20

Data warehouse and BI initiatives typically follow a process similar to that used in military intelligence initiatives.

Question 21

When middles look across an organization to ensure that project priorities reflect the needs of the entire business,what is their main concern?

A) that their proprietary BI methods are protected from industrial espionage
B) that additional information available through an enterprise data warehouse should assist in decision making
C) that a project does not just serve to sub-optimize one area over others
D) that return on investment (ROI) and total cost of ownership justify the cost-benefit ratio

Question 22

The very design that makes an OLTP system efficient for transaction processing makes it inefficient for what?

A) end-user ad hoc reports, queries, and analysis
B) transaction processing systems that constantly update operational databases
C) the collection of reputable sources of intelligence
D) transactions such as ATM withdrawals, where we need to reduce a bank balance accordingly

Question 23

In answering the question "Which customers are most likely to click on my online ads and purchase my goods?" you are most likely to use which of the following analytic applications?

A) customer profitability
B) propensity to buy
C) customer attrition
D) channel optimization

Question 24

Which of the following is NOT an example that falls within the four major categories of business environment factors for today's organizations?

A) globalization
B) increased pool of customers
C) fewer government regulations
D) increased competition

Question 25

Business intelligence (BI)can be characterized as a transformation of

A) data to information to decisions to actions.
B) Big Data to data to information to decisions.
C) actions to decisions to feedback to information.
D) data to processing to information to actions.

Question 26

What can the BI users in an organization help guide and direct?

A) how to implement and deploy a BI initiative that can be lengthy, expensive, and failure prone
B) how the DW is structured and the types of BI tools and other supporting software that are needed
C) how to decompose the planning and execution into business, organization, functionality, and infrastructure components
D) how the DW is structured and the costs and the appreciation for different classes of potential users

Question 27

Which of the following statements about Big Data is true?

A) Data chunks are stored in different locations on one computer.
B) Hadoop is a type of processor used to process Big Data applications.
C) MapReduce is a storage filing system.
D) Pure Big Data systems do not involve fault tolerance.

Question 28

What has caused the growth of the demand for instant,on-demand access to dispersed information?

A) the increasing divide between users who focus on the strategic level and those who are more oriented to the tactical level
B) the need to create a database infrastructure that is always online and contains all the information from the OLTP systems
C) the more pressing need to close the gap between the operational data and strategic objectives
D) the fact that BI cannot simply be a technical exercise for the information systems department

Question 29

Organizations counter the pressures they experience in their business environments in multiple ways.Which of the following is NOT an effective way to counter these pressures?

A) reactive actions
B) anticipative actions
C) adaptive actions
D) retroactive actions

Question 30

In the Magpie Sensing case study,the automated collection of temperature and humidity data on shipped goods helped with various types of analytics.Which of the following is an example of prescriptive analytics?

A) real time reports of the shipment's temperature
B) warning of an open shipment seal
C) location of the shipment
D) optimal temperature setting

Question 31

How are descriptive analytics methods different from the other two types?

A) They answer "what-if?" queries, not "how many?" queries.
B) They answer "what-is?" queries, not "what will be?" queries.
C) They answer "what to do?" queries, not "what-if?" queries.
D) They answer "what will be?" queries, not "what to do?" queries.

Question 32

When Sabre developed their Enterprise Data Warehouse,they chose to use near-real time updating of their database.The main reason they did so was

A) to provide a 360 degree view of the organization.
B) to aggregate performance metrics in an understandable way.
C) to be able to assess internal operations.
D) to provide up-to-date executive insights.

Question 33

If a company's strategy is properly aligned with DW and BI initiatives,and if the company's IS organization can be made capable of playing its role in such a project,and if the requisite user community is in place and has the proper motivation,then

A) it is no longer necessary to start BI within the company.
B) it is wise to start BI and establish a BI Competency Center (BICC) within the company.
C) the organization is ready for the introduction of new data-generating technologies, such as radio-frequency identification (RFID).
D) business leaders are required to document their business processes and to sign off on the legitimacy of the information they rely on.

Question 34

Online transaction processing (OLTP)systems handle a company's routine ongoing business.In contrast,a data warehouse is typically

A) the end result of BI processes and operations.
B) a repository of actionable intelligence obtained from a data mart.
C) a distinct system that provides storage for data that will be made use of in analysis.
D) an integral subsystem of an online analytical processing (OLAP) system.

Question 35

Prescriptive BI capabilities are viewed as more powerful than predictive ones for all the following reasons EXCEPT

A) prescriptive BI gives actual guidance as to actions.
B) understanding the likelihood of certain events often leaves unclear remedies.
C) only prescriptive BI capabilities have monetary value to top-level managers.
D) prescriptive models generally build on (with some overlap) predictive ones.

Question 36

In the Magpie Sensing case study,the automated collection of temperature and humidity data on shipped goods helped with various types of analytics.Which of the following is an example of predictive analytics?

A) real time reports of the shipment's temperature
B) warning of an open shipment seal
C) location of the shipment
D) optimal temperature setting

Question 37

In answering the question "Which customers are likely to be using fake credit cards?" you are most likely to use which of the following analytic applications?

A) channel optimization
B) customer segmentation
C) fraud detection
D) customer profitability

Question 38

Once a data warehouse is in place,the general process of intelligence creation begins with

A) end-user examinations of decision-making impacts.
B) identifying and prioritizing specific BI projects.
C) estimating the cost-benefit ratio of the ROI.
D) establishing the critical partnerships required for BI governance.

Question 39

Big Data often involves a form of distributed storage and processing using Hadoop and MapReduce.One reason for this is

A) centralized storage creates too many vulnerabilities.
B) the "Big" in Big Data necessitates over 10,000 processing nodes.
C) the processing power needed for the centralized model would overload a single computer.
D) Big Data systems have to match the geographical spread of social media.

Question 40

Today,many vendors offer diversified tools,some of which are completely preprogrammed (called shells).How are these shells utilized?

A) They are used for customization of BI solutions.
B) All a user needs to do is insert the numbers.
C) The shell provides a secure environment for the organization's BI data.
D) They host an enterprise data warehouse that can assist in decision making.

Question 41

________ is an umbrella term that combines architectures,tools,databases,analytical tools,applications,and methodologies.

Question 42

Data warehouses are intended to work with informational data used for online ________ processing systems.

Question 43

The fraud ________ analytic application helps determine fraudulent events and take action.

Question 44

________ analytics help managers understand probable future outcomes.

Question 45

Applications based upon sensor and location data that contribute to the exponential growth of collected raw data is called ________ identification.

Question 46

An older and more diverse workforce falls under the ________ category of business environment factors.

Question 47

A(n)________ is a major component of a Business Intelligence (BI)system that holds source data.

Question 48

The programing algorithm developed by Google to handle Big Data computational challenges is known as ________.

Question 49

A(n)________ is a major component of a Business Intelligence (BI)system that is usually browser based and often presents a portal or dashboard.

Question 50

Sabre used executive ________ to present performance metrics in a concise way to its executives.

Question 51

Organizations using BI systems are typically seeking to ________ the gap between the organization's current and desired performance.

Question 52

________ analytics help managers make decisions to achieve the best performance in the future.

Question 53

Some organizations refer to the project prioritization process as a form of BI ________.

Question 54

The desire by a customer to customize a product falls under the ________ category of business environment factors.

Question 55

________ analytics help managers understand current events in the organization including causes,trends,and patterns.

Question 56

Many BI consultants and practitioners involved in successful BI initiatives advise that a framework for ________ is a necessary precondition.

Question 57

________ cycle times are now extremely compressed,faster,and more informed across industries.

Question 58

The Google search engine is an example of Big Data in that it has to search and index billions of ________ in fractions of a second for each search.

Question 59

As the number of potential BI applications increases,the need to justify and prioritize them arises.This is not an easy task due to the large number of ________ benefits.

Question 60

The filing system developed by Google to handle Big Data storage challenges is known as the ________ Distributed File System.

Question 61

What are the four major components of a Business Intelligence (BI)system?

Question 62

What storage system and processing algorithm were developed by Google for Big Data?

Question 63

The environment in which organizations operate today is becoming more and more complex.
Business environment factors can be divided into four major categories.What are these categories?

Question 64

What is the intent of the analysis of data that is stored in a data warehouse?

Question 65

Mention four possible functions that a BI Competency Center (BICC)would serve within an organization,and give a brief description of each.

Question 66

What is a typical set of issues,as described in section 1.4,that the BI governance team needs to address?

Question 67

Describe and define Big Data.Why is a search engine a Big Data application?

Question 68

How does Amazon.com use predictive analytics to respond to product searches by the customer?

Question 69

List and describe three levels or categories of analytics that are most often viewed as sequential and independent,but also occasionally seen as overlapping.

Question 70

Business applications can be programmed to act on what real-time BI systems discover.Describe two approaches to the implementation of real-time BI.