Quiz 14: Maintaining Information Systems

Today more programmers work on maintenance activities than work on new development.

Overcoming internal processing errors and providing better support for changing business needs are two reasons why systems are maintained.

Maintenance activities are limited to software changes.

The decision to either maintain a system or replace it is often an issue of economics.

Implementation is the last phase of the systems development life cycle.

Transforming requests into changes is a major maintenance activity.

Installation is one of the four major maintenance activities.

Obtaining maintenance requests,transforming requests into changes,designing changes and implementing changes are the four major maintenance activities.

Many similarities exist between the SDLC and the activities within the maintenance process.

The planning SDLC phase is analogous to the maintenance process of transforming requests into changes.

The systems analysis SDLC phase is analogous to the maintenance process of obtaining maintenance requests.

The systems design SDLC phase is analogous to the maintenance process of designing changes.

The systems implementation SDLC phase is analogous to the maintenance process of implementing changes.

The maintenance phase's primary deliverables are finalized design specifications.

One way to distinguish maintenance from new development is that maintenance reuses most existing system modules in producing the new system version.

A significant portion of the expenditures for information systems within organizations goes to the maintenance of existing systems.

Corrective maintenance modifies the system to environmental changes.

Corrective maintenance repairs design and programming errors.

Adaptive maintenance modifies the system to environmental changes.

Adaptive maintenance evolves the system to solve new problems or take advantage of new opportunities.

Perfective maintenance evolves the system to solve new problems or take advantage of new opportunities.

Preventive maintenance safeguards a system from future problems.

Preventive maintenance repairs design and programming errors.

Adaptive maintenance accounts for as much as 75 percent of all maintenance activity.

Corrective maintenance focuses on removing defects from an existing system without adding new functionality.

Adaptive maintenance is a significant part of an organization's maintenance effort.

Both perfective and preventive maintenance typically have a much higher priority than corrective maintenance.

The number of customers for a given system influences most of the costs associated with maintaining a system.

Transitive defects are the number of unknown errors existing in the system after it is installed.

The number of latent defects in a system influences most of the costs associated with maintaining a system.

The number of customers for a given system influences maintenance costs.

The quality of system documentation influences maintenance costs.

Software structure is a cost element of maintenance.

Management support is one of the major cost elements of maintenance.

Separate,combined,and functional are types of maintenance organizational structures.

An advantage of the combined maintenance organizational structure is the formal transfer of systems between groups improving the system and documentation quality.

A disadvantage associated with the separate maintenance organizational structure is that documentation and testing thoroughness suffers due to a lack of a formal transfer of responsibility.

An advantage to the functional maintenance organizational structure is that the maintenance group knows or has access to all assumptions and decisions behind the system's original design.

It is now common to rotate individuals in and out of maintenance activities.

Mean time between failures is a measurement of error occurrences that can be tracked over time to indicate the quality of a system.

Over time,the MTBF should rapidly decrease after a few months of system use.

Managing maintenance requests is a maintenance activity.

The queue of maintenance tasks is dynamic.

Changes to a system are usually implemented in batches.

Configuration management is the process of ensuring that only authorized changes are made to a system.

Build routines are software modules that have been tested,documented,and approved to be included in the most recently created version of a system.

Baseline routines are guidelines that list the instructions to construct an executable system from the baseline source code.

A primary objective of using CASE and other automated tools for systems development and maintenance is to change radically how code and documentation are modified and updated.

Reverse engineering and reengineering tools are primarily used to maintain older systems that have incomplete documentation or that were developed prior to CASE use.

Locking out the use of pages in a portion of a Website can be done by inserting a "Temporary Out of Service" notice on the main page of the section being maintained and disabling all links within that segment.

The largest systems development expenditure for many organizations is: A)systems maintenance B)project planning C)implementation D)requirements structuring

Once an information system is installed,it is essentially in the: A)implementation phase B)redesign phase C)maintenance phase D)system renewal phase

The last phase of the systems development life cycle is: A)operation B)implementation C)maintenance D)analysis

Which of the following is a major activity that occurs during maintenance? A)coding B)transforming requests into changes C)conversion D)training and supporting users

All of the following are major activities that occur during maintenance except: A)transforming requests into changes B)designing changes C)implementing changes D)structuring requirements

Which of the following is a major activity occurring during maintenance? A)obtaining maintenance requests B)transforming requests into changes C)designing changes D)all of the above

An SSR or similar document can be used to: A)request new development B)report problems C)request new system features with an existing system D)all of the above

The first phase of the SDLC,planning,is analogous to the maintenance process of: A)obtaining maintenance requests B)transforming requests into changes C)designing changes D)implementing changes

The SDLC phase of analysis is analogous to the maintenance process of: A)obtaining maintenance requests B)transforming requests into a specific system change C)designing changes D)implementing changes

The SDLC design phase is analogous to the maintenance process of: A)obtaining maintenance requests B)transforming requests into changes C)designing changes D)implementing changes

The SDLC phase of implementation is analogous to the maintenance process of: A)obtaining maintenance requests B)transforming requests into changes C)designing changes D)implementing changes

Which of the following best identifies the deliverables for the maintenance phase? A)The creation of a document that will consolidate the information that must be considered when implementing a physical distributed systems design. B)The development of a new version of the software and new versions of all design documents that were developed or modified during the maintenance process. C)Structured descriptions and diagrams that outline the logic contained within each DFD process. D)Documentation,a user training plan,user training modules,and a user support plan.

Which of the following types of maintenance accounts for as much as 75 percent of all maintenance activity? A)preventive maintenance B)corrective maintenance C)adaptive maintenance D)perfective maintenance

Changes made to a system to fix or enhance its functionality best defines: A)maintenance B)support C)repair D)installation

Changes made to a system to repair flaws in its design,coding,or implementation describes: A)corrective maintenance B)adaptive maintenance C)preventive maintenance D)perfective maintenance

Which of the following is a type of maintenance? A)preventive B)perfective C)corrective D)all of the above

All of the following are types of maintenance except: A)supportive maintenance B)corrective maintenance C)adaptive maintenance D)perfective maintenance

Modifying a system to reflect environmental changes describes: A)corrective maintenance B)adaptive maintenance C)preventive maintenance D)perfective maintenance

Evolving the system to solve new problems or take advantage of new opportunities describes: A)corrective maintenance B)adaptive maintenance C)preventive maintenance D)perfective maintenance

Changes made to a system to evolve its functionality to changing business needs or technologies best describes: A)corrective maintenance B)adaptive maintenance C)preventive maintenance D)perfective maintenance

Changes made to a system to add new features or to improve performance best describes: A)corrective maintenance B)adaptive maintenance C)preventive maintenance D)perfective maintenance

Which of the following typically is assigned the highest priority? A)preventive maintenance B)perfective maintenance C)corrective maintenance D)adaptive maintenance

Changes made to a system to avoid possible future problems best describes: A)corrective maintenance B)adaptive maintenance C)preventive maintenance D)perfective maintenance

Which of the following is felt by many systems professionals to be new development,not maintenance? A)perfective maintenance B)preventive maintenance C)adaptive maintenance D)corrective maintenance

Which of the following is a true statement? A)According to Pressman 2001 and Kaplan 2002,some organizations are spending as much as 10 - 20 percent of their software budget on maintenance. B)According to Pressman 2001 and Kaplan 2002,some organizations are spending as much as 30 - 40 percent of their software budget on maintenance. C)According to Pressman 2001 and Kaplan 2002,some organizations are spending as much as 50 - 60 percent of their software budget on maintenance. D)According to Kaplan 2002,some organizations are spending as much as 60 - 80 percent of their software budget on maintenance.

Which of the following maintenance cost elements is the most significant? A)tools B)software structure C)personnel D)customers

Which of the following influences most of the costs associated with maintaining a system? A)personnel B)documentation quality C)number of latent defects D)number of customers

The ease with which software can be understood,corrected,adapted,and enhanced best describes: A)maintenance B)maintainability C)adaptability D)comfort level

Which of the following is not a cost element of maintenance? A)defects B)documentation C)personnel D)time

Which of the following are cost elements of maintenance? A)defects B)documentation C)personnel D)all of the above

According to research mentioned in the textbook: A)on average,25 percent of a company's programmers are assigned to maintain existing software B)on average,less than 10 percent of a company's programmers are assigned to maintain existing software C)on average,37 percent of a company's programmers are assigned to maintain existing software D)on average,52 percent of a company's programmers are assigned to maintain existing software

Which of the following is not a maintenance organizational structure? A)separate B)combined C)vertical D)functional

Which of the following maintenance organizational structures has as its advantage the formal transfer of systems between groups improves the system and documentation quality? A)separate B)combined C)functional D)none of the above

The lack of thoroughness in documentation and testing caused by the absence of a formal transfer of responsibility is a disadvantage of: A)the separate maintenance organizational structure B)the combined maintenance organizational structure C)the functional maintenance organizational structure D)none of the above

The maintenance group knowing or having access to all assumptions and decisions behind the system's original design is an advantage of: A)the separate maintenance organizational structure B)the combined maintenance organizational structure C)the functional maintenance organizational structure D)all of the maintenance organizational structures

All things not being documented,so the maintenance group may not know critical information about the system is a disadvantage of: A)the separate maintenance organizational structure B)the combined maintenance organizational structure C)the functional maintenance organizational structure D)all of the maintenance organizational structures

Personnel having limited job mobility and lacking access to adequate human and technical resources is a disadvantage of: A)the separate maintenance organizational structure B)the combined maintenance organizational structure C)the functional maintenance organizational structure D)all of the maintenance organizational structures

Effective management of systems maintenance requires: A)managing maintenance personnel B)measuring maintenance effectiveness C)controlling maintenance requests D)doing all of the above

Which of the following is a true statement? A)Many systems professionals do not want to perform maintenance because they feel that it is more exciting to build something new rather than change an existing system. B)Organizations have historically provided greater rewards and job opportunities to those performing new development. C)It is now common to rotate individuals in and out of maintenance activities. D)All of the above are true statements.

To measure maintenance effectiveness,you should measure: A)the number of failures B)the time between each failure C)the type of failure D)all of the above

A measurement of error occurrences that can be tracked over time to indicate the quality of a system best defines: A)consistency ratio B)mean time between failures C)error tracking D)regression analysis

Which of the following is a more revealing method of measurement? A)number of failures B)time between each failure C)type of failure D)none of the above

The process of assuring that only authorized changes are made to a system defines: A)configuration management B)consistency management C)quality management D)business process reengineering

Software modules that have been tested,documented,and approved to be included in the most recently created version of a system are called: A)pretested modules B)baseline modules C)quality assurance modules D)none of the above

The person responsible for controlling the checking out and checking in of baseline modules for a system that is being developed or maintained is the: A)code agent B)systems operator C)system librarian D)catalog agent

Guidelines that list the instructions to construct an executable system from the baseline source code are called: A)build routines B)base routines C)construction routines D)reference routines

Which of the following configuration management tools stores only the most recent version of a module,with previous versions being reconstructed when needed by applying changes in reverse order? A)source code control B)version control C)integrity control D)revision control

Which of the following configuration management tools addresses interrelated files? A)source code control B)version control C)integrity control D)revision control

Which of the following is a true statement regarding the role of CASE in maintenance? A)A primary objective of using CASE for systems development and maintenance is to change radically the way in which code and documentation are modified and updated. B)When using an integrated CASE environment,analysts maintain design documents and source code. C)Although CASE is very beneficial during the first part of the SDLC,it is not as advantageous during maintenance. D)all of the above

When performing Website maintenance,issues and procedures include each of the following except: A)checking for broken links B)HTML validation C)re-registration D)stability

__________,__________,__________,and __________ are the four major maintenance activities.

__________ equates to the SDLC phase of project identification and selection.

Analysis is analogous to the maintenance process of __________.

The SDLC design phase equates to the maintenance process of __________.

The SDLC implementation phase equates to the maintenance process of __________.

__________ refers to changes made to a system to fix or enhance its functionality.

__________ refers to changes made to a system to evolve its functionality to changing business needs or technologies.

__________ refers to changes made to a system to avoid possible future problems.

__________ refers to changes made to a system to add new features or to improve performance.

__________ refers to changes made to a system to repair flaws in its design,coding,or implementation.

__________ is the ease with which software can be understood,corrected,adapted,and enhanced.

The formal transfer of systems between groups improving the system and documentation quality is an advantage associated with the __________ maintenance organizational structure.

The maintenance group knowing or having access to all assumptions and decisions behind the system's original design is an advantage associated with the __________ maintenance organizational structure.

Personnel having a vested interest in effectively maintaining the system and having a better understanding of functional requirements is an advantage associated with the __________ maintenance organizational structure.

Documentation and testing thoroughness may suffer due to a lack of a formal transfer of responsibility is a disadvantage associated with the __________ maintenance organizational structure.

__________,__________,and __________ are three factors for measuring maintenance effectiveness.

__________ is a measurement of error occurrences that can be tracked over time to indicate the quality of a system.

__________ is the process of assuring that only authorized changes are made to a system.

__________ are software modules that have been tested,documented,and approved to be included in the most recently created version of a system.

A __________ is the person responsible for controlling the checking out and checking in of baseline modules when a system is being developed or maintained.

__________ are guidelines that list the instructions to construct an executable system from the baseline source code.

__________ and __________ are two special-purpose tools that are primarily used to maintain older systems that have incomplete documentation or that were developed prior to CASE use.

__________ are special software systems that manage system configuration and version control activities.

__________ and __________ are two general kinds of configuration management tools.

When maintaining Websites,__________,__________,__________,__________,and __________ are issues and procedures to consider.

Match each of the following terms with its corresponding definition. a.adaptive maintenance b.baseline modules c.build routines d.configuration management e.corrective maintenance f.maintainability g.maintenance h.mean time between failures i.perfective maintenance j.preventive maintenance k.system librarian -A measurement of error occurrences that can be tracked over time to indicate the quality of a system.

Match each of the following terms with its corresponding definition. a.adaptive maintenance b.baseline modules c.build routines d.configuration management e.corrective maintenance f.maintainability g.maintenance h.mean time between failures i.perfective maintenance j.preventive maintenance k.system librarian -Changes made to a system to evolve its functionality to changing business needs or technologies.

Match each of the following terms with its corresponding definition. a.adaptive maintenance b.baseline modules c.build routines d.configuration management e.corrective maintenance f.maintainability g.maintenance h.mean time between failures i.perfective maintenance j.preventive maintenance k.system librarian -A person responsible for controlling the checking out and checking in of baseline modules for a system that is being developed or maintained.

Match each of the following terms with its corresponding definition. a.adaptive maintenance b.baseline modules c.build routines d.configuration management e.corrective maintenance f.maintainability g.maintenance h.mean time between failures i.perfective maintenance j.preventive maintenance k.system librarian -The ease with which software can be understood,corrected,adapted,and enhanced.

Match each of the following terms with its corresponding definition. a.adaptive maintenance b.baseline modules c.build routines d.configuration management e.corrective maintenance f.maintainability g.maintenance h.mean time between failures i.perfective maintenance j.preventive maintenance k.system librarian -Changes made to a system to add new features or to improve performance.

Match each of the following terms with its corresponding definition. a.adaptive maintenance b.baseline modules c.build routines d.configuration management e.corrective maintenance f.maintainability g.maintenance h.mean time between failures i.perfective maintenance j.preventive maintenance k.system librarian -The process of assuring that only authorized changes are made to a system.

Match each of the following terms with its corresponding definition. a.adaptive maintenance b.baseline modules c.build routines d.configuration management e.corrective maintenance f.maintainability g.maintenance h.mean time between failures i.perfective maintenance j.preventive maintenance k.system librarian -Changes made to a system to fix or enhance its functionality.

Match each of the following terms with its corresponding definition. a.adaptive maintenance b.baseline modules c.build routines d.configuration management e.corrective maintenance f.maintainability g.maintenance h.mean time between failures i.perfective maintenance j.preventive maintenance k.system librarian -Software modules that have been tested,documented,and approved to be included in the most recently created version of a system.

Match each of the following terms with its corresponding definition. a.adaptive maintenance b.baseline modules c.build routines d.configuration management e.corrective maintenance f.maintainability g.maintenance h.mean time between failures i.perfective maintenance j.preventive maintenance k.system librarian -Changes made to a system to repair flaws in its design,coding,or implementation.

Match each of the following terms with its corresponding definition. a.adaptive maintenance b.baseline modules c.build routines d.configuration management e.corrective maintenance f.maintainability g.maintenance h.mean time between failures i.perfective maintenance j.preventive maintenance k.system librarian -Guidelines that list the instructions to construct an executable system from the baseline source code.

Match each of the following terms with its corresponding definition. a.adaptive maintenance b.baseline modules c.build routines d.configuration management e.corrective maintenance f.maintainability g.maintenance h.mean time between failures i.perfective maintenance j.preventive maintenance k.system librarian -Changes made to a system to avoid possible future problems.

Match each of the following maintenance organizational structures to corresponding descriptions.(Answers may occur more than once.) a.combined b.functional c.separate -An advantage is that the formal transfer of systems between groups improves the system and documentation quality.

Match each of the following maintenance organizational structures to corresponding descriptions.(Answers may occur more than once.) a.combined b.functional c.separate -A disadvantage is that the personnel may have limited job mobility and lack access to adequate human and technical resources.

Match each of the following maintenance organizational structures to corresponding descriptions.(Answers may occur more than once.) a.combined b.functional c.separate -A disadvantage is that all things cannot be documented,so the maintenance group may not know critical information about the system.

Match each of the following maintenance organizational structures to corresponding descriptions.(Answers may occur more than once.) a.combined b.functional c.separate -An advantage is that the maintenance group knows or has access to all assumptions and decisions behind the system's original design.

Match each of the following maintenance organizational structures to corresponding descriptions.(Answers may occur more than once.) a.combined b.functional c.separate -A disadvantage is that the documentation and testing thoroughness may suffer due to a lack of a formal transfer of responsibility.

Match each of the following maintenance organizational structures to corresponding descriptions.(Answers may occur more than once.) a.combined b.functional c.separate -An advantage is that the personnel have a vested interest in effectively maintaining the system and have a better understanding of functional requirements.

Match each of the following types of maintenance to its corresponding "home" example. a.corrective b.adaptive c.perfective d.preventive -Adding storm windows to improve the cooling performance of an air conditioner.

Match each of the following types of maintenance to its corresponding "home" example. a.corrective b.adaptive c.perfective d.preventive -Adding a new room on your house.

Match each of the following types of maintenance to its corresponding "home" example. a.corrective b.adaptive c.perfective d.preventive -Painting the exterior to protect your home from severe weather conditions.

Match each of the following types of maintenance to its corresponding "home" example. a.corrective b.adaptive c.perfective d.preventive -Repairs made to things that never worked according to the design specifications of your new home.

Match each of the following maintenance organizational structures to its advantage. a.functional b.separate c.combined -An advantage is that the maintenance group knows or has access to all assumptions and decisions behind the system's original design.

Match each of the following maintenance organizational structures to its advantage. a.functional b.separate c.combined -An advantage is that the personnel have a vested interest in effectively maintaining the system and have a better understanding of functional requirements.

Match each of the following maintenance organizational structures to its advantage. a.functional b.separate c.combined -An advantage is that the formal transfer of systems between groups improves the system and documentation quality.

Identify several types of maintenance.

To measure maintenance effectiveness,what three factors must be measured?

What is maintainability? Identify several factors that influence the maintainability of a system.

What is the role of CASE in maintenance?

Briefly outline the advantages of the different maintenance organizational structures.

Briefly outline the disadvantages of the different maintenance organizational structures.

Identify two methods for maintaining a Website 24x7x365?

What is MTBF?

Discuss configuration management.Who is the system librarian?

Identify the four major activities that occur within maintenance.

What are the deliverables for the maintenance phase?