CIS 235 final
What is a HiPPO?
Highest paid person
Can you briefly describe Scrum
Scrum is a lightweight framework designed to help small, close-knit teams of people develop complex products.
In which phase do we need to complete the feasibility analysis and come up with a project plan?
Systems Investigation
What are the phases of the SDLC?
Systems Investigation: The initial stage in a traditional SDLC is systems investigation, and the primary task in the systems investigation stage is the feasibility study Systems Analysis: the process whereby systems analysts examine the business problem that the organization plans to solve with an information system. Systems analysis: deliverable is a set of system requirements. Systems Design: describes how the system will resolve the business problem. Programming and Testing: Programming: involves translating the design specifications into computer code Testing: the process that assesses whether the computer code will produce the expected and desired results Implementation: the process of converting from an old computer system to a new one. Operation and Maintenance: Once a new system's operations are stabilized, the company performs audits to assess the system's capabilities and to determine if it is being utilized correctly.
What is the role of system analysts in the planning/investigation phase?
Systems analyst solve problems with IT An architect, not a programmer Feasibility studies
What does it mean to automate a manual process?
5 Components of IS: People Processes Data Software Hardware Moving things from the the left to the right, people to computers Why? Cheaper, more precise, more efficient
What is an Information System?
5 component model: Hardware, software, data, procedures, and people Computer (software and hardware) and human side (procedures and people) Hardware and people are actors Software and procedures are instructions Data is the bridge Goal is to achieve business goals and objectives Exist to help a business achieve their strategic goals
Be able to define and explain the "buzz words" discussed in class (1)
?? (1)
List the activities that are performed within each of the phases of the SDLC (4)
?? (4)
Can you define and explain the "buzz words" discussed in class?
?? (5)
What is a Data Warehouse?
A facility for managing an organization's BI data- a more structured data selection ORGANIZED
What is agile? How does it compare to waterfall? What is users' role in agile?
A group of software development methods, that allow dynamic and adaptive solutions to be attained. less constrictive and linear than waterfall/willing to change, can go up and down model/ test as you go/preferred system (more difficult to execute, ensures that most work will not go to waste)
What is the difference between Structured, Semistructured, and Unstructured decision-making?
A structured decision is one in which the phases of the decision-making process (intelligence, design, and choice) have standardized procedures, clear objectives, and clearly specified input and output. There exists a procedure for arriving at the best solution. An unstructured decision is one where not all of the decision-making phases are structured and human intuition plays an important role. A semi structured decision has some, but not all, structured phases where standardized procedures may be used in combination with individual judgment.
What is a Folksonomy? Can you provide an example?
A user-generated system of classifying and organizing online content into different categories by the use of metadata such as electronic tags. E.g.: Hashtag on Twitter! (creates a logical grouping that people can search and then put together to notice a trending pattern)
How do new approaches on system developments value individuals and interactions?
A whole lot more customer interaction in agile than waterfall Agile opts for the notion of acquiring a lower cost of change by meeting requirements rather than working off of a plan
What is the purpose of business intelligence?
Acquisition, cleaning, and making data for the purposes of decision making through BI systems (applications) Used for identifying changes in purchasing patterns and predictive policing
What is Crowdfunding, and how does E-commerce make it possible?
Allows organizations to get funding from a large number of small donators b/c of e-commerce it is now possible to reach a large enough audience
What were some of the predecessors of E-commerce?
American Hospital Supply/Baxter Healthcare Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) French Minitel (1980s videotext system) - fastest growing commerce in U
What is Hadoop?
An open-source software framework for storing data and running applications on clusters of commodity hardware. It provides massive storage for any kind of data, enormous processing power and the ability to handle virtually limitless concurrent tasks or jobs. Runs in MapReduce
How do we define "transaction"?
Any business event that generates data worth capturing and storing in a database.
What is data mining?
Application of statistical techniques to find patterns and relationships mong data for classification and prediction. Examining large databases in order to generate new information
What is the "Bullwhip effect"?
Erratic shifts in orders up and down the supply chain Ripple effect Less downstream than upstream
What is the difference between a forward auction and a reverse auction, how are those services typically implemented online, and what are example of online services that use similar functions but do not actually provide auctions?
Auction - highest bidder wins Reverse auction - buyers wants something done, lowest bidder wins
What are the benefits vs. challenges of ERP implementations?
Benefits: Eliminate data inconsistencies Provides complete business process Leads to cost effective customer service Challenges: Costly Often ineffective implementation of these systems Time consuming BIG
What are the different degrees of digitization?
Brick n mortar Click n mortar Digital
How does Big Data impact decision-making?
Big Data makes it possible to do many things that were previously impossible (e.g., business trends to more rapidly and accurately prevent disease, track crime) Used in various functional areas of an organization: Human Resources (e.g., employee benefits, hiring, etc.) Product Development (e.g., capture customer design preferences) Operations (e.g., UPS used info/data from sensors to reduce fuel usage) Marketing (e.g., better understand customers and target efforts directly) Government Operations (e.g., Water management in the Netherlands)
What is the difference between BPR and BPI?
Business Process Reengineering(BPR): A radical redesign of a business process that improves its efficiency and effectiveness, often by beginning with a "clean sheet" (i.e., from scratch). Business Process Improvement: An incremental approach to move an organization toward business process centered operations Focuses on reducing variation in process outputs by identifying the underlying cause of the variation
What are the different types of E-commerce models?
Business-to-Consumer (B2C): the sellers are organizations, and the buyers are individuals. Business-to-Business (B2B): both the sellers and the buyers are business organizations. B2B comprises the vast majority of EC volume. Consumer-to-Consumer (C2C): an individual sells products or services to other individuals. Business-to-Employee (B2E): an organization uses EC internally to provide information and services to its employees. E-government: E-government is the use of Internet technology in general and e-commerce in particular to deliver information and public services to citizens. Government-to-Citizen (G2C): government to individual citizens. Government-to-Business (G2B): G2B EC is much like B2B EC, usually with an overlay of government procurement regulations. Mobile Commerce (m-commerce): e-commerce that is conducted entirely in a wireless environment.
What are some of the ways IS can improve a supply chain?
Businesses can now the instant a product needs to be restocked, track inventory, see buying patterns in customers.
What is a "dimension"? A dimensional hierarchy?
Characteristic or descriptor: salesperson, purchase date, etc. Characteristic of data Dimensions are key to navigating the data warehouse / business intelligence system, and hierarchies are the key to navigating dimensions. Any time a business user talks about wanting to drill up, down or into the data, they are implicitly referring to a dimension hierarchy.
What are some fundamental ways that marketing has changed in the presence of Social Media?
Companies now can market to hundreds of thousands of people easier by targeting people with more followers
How do reporting systems create information from data?
Create meaningful info from different data sources, deliver info to user on time, do this by filtering, sorting, grouping, making calculations types: static (prepared once from underlying data and do not change), dynamic (time of creation reads most current data and generates report using fresh data) query(created in response to data entered by users) OLAP(allows the user to dynamically change the report grouping structures) media: printed, PDF, computer screens, digital dashboards, etc.
What is the difference between customer facing and customer touching applications?
Customer facing - areas where customers directly interact with the company (Customer service) Customer touching - areas where customers use software or tools to help themselves
Which one of the 5 components of IS serves as a bridge between the human side and the computer side?
Data
What is a "measure"?
Data item of interest:total sales, average sales, etc. Property on which calculations (e.g., sum, count, average, minimum, maximum) can be made
What are the functions and characteristics of ERP?
Designed to correct a lack of communication among the functional area IS Tightly integrate the functional area IS via a common database
In the context of agile systems development, what is an iteration?
Desired outcomes (e.g., software application) of a repetitive process created in small sections Each iteration is reviewed and critiqued by the software team/end-user
What is dirty data? Coarse data?
Dirty data: Data that is incomplete, missing entries or garbage entries, remove the values that will ruin the values; needs to be cleaned up before it's useful Granularity: Too much data in system that an org. doesn't need (too fine) Coarse data: Data that is not detailed enough The Curse of Dimensionality: When there is too much data, too many attributes and data points Regression analysis: Statistical process for estimating the relationships among variables
What is Disintermediation in regards to strategic use of SCM?
Distributors are the intermediary removal of the distributor is disintermediation
Why do these web techs matter for E-commerce?
E-commerce changed forms every time the internet improved.
How can E-commerce affect the supply chain?
E-commerce essential takes the middle man out, producers can sell directly and brick and mortar shops are disappearing
Define ERP and EAI. How does each work, and how do they compare (e.g. why might you choose one vs. another)?
ERP Systems: Information systems that take a business process view of the overall organization to integrate the planning, management, and use of all of an organization's resources, employing a common software platform and database. EAI System: A system that integrates existing systems by providing layers of software that connect applications together.
How does CRM work along Customer Lifecycle?
Every contact and transaction with the customer is recorded in the CRM database.
What are four primary challenges that can inhibit successful adoption of an Enterprise System and how might they be mitigated?
Failure to involve affected employees in the planning and development phases and in change management processes Trying to accomplish too much too fast in the conversion process Insufficient training in the new work tasks required by the ERP system The failure to perform proper data conversion and testing for the new system
What are the 4 feasibility analyses that need to be completed?
Feasibility Study: analyzes which of three basic solutions best fits the particular business problem. It also provides a rough assessment of the project's technical, economic, and behavioral feasibility. Technical Feasibility: determines whether the company can develop and/or acquire the hardware, soft ware, and communications components needed to solve the business problem. Technical feasibility also determines whether the organization can use its existing technology to achieve the project's performance objectives. Economic Feasibility: determines whether the project is an acceptable financial risk and, if so, whether the organization has the necessary time and money to successfully complete the project. Behavioral Feasibility: addresses the human issues of the systems development project.
Can you briefly explain Kanban and why it is important?
First ever system which notified when product was running low and out. Started in Japan by Deming after WW2 now technology has taken over this, but it is still based on Kanban
What is a "Seeker of the Truth"?
Has a common desire to learn something, solve a problem, but not a common solution; problem solvers and excel and innovation; useful to customers
What are some potential pitfalls of engaging with customers via Social Media?
If mistakes are made they go viral very quickly and reputations can be ruined fairly fast
What are the trade-offs of sharing information with other members of your supply chain and why is this relevant to the Bullwhip Effect?
Information transparency JIT manufacturing Physical locations
What's the difference between an information worker and a knowledge worker?
Information worker - People who work within IT Knowledge worker - no specialist users of BI results
What are our options for employing a new system?
Insourcing, Self-sourcing/end-user development, and outsourcing
What are the key differences between insourcing, selfsourcing, and outsourcing systems development?
Insourcing: IT specialists inside your organization Self-sourcing/End-User Development: Do-it-yourself approach many end users take with little or no help from IT specialists Outsourcing: A third-party organization (i.e., let someone do the work and pay them for it)
What are the four phases of the Rational Model of Decision Making?
Intelligence Phase: managers examine a situation and then identify and define the problem or opportunity. What is the problem? Design Phase: decision makers construct a model for addressing the situation. They perform this task by making assumptions that simplify reality and by expressing the relationships among all of the relevant variables. Managers then validate the model by using test data. Finally, decision makers set criteria for evaluating all of the potential solutions that are proposed. What are my options for solving the problem? Choice Phase: involves selecting a solution or course of action that seems best suited to resolve the problem. This solution (the decision) is then implemented. Implementation Phase: is successful if the proposed solution solves the problem or seizes the opportunity. If the solution fails, then the process returns to the previous phases. Computer-based decision support assists managers in the decision-making process. Evaluation
What is meant by a "to-be" model and why is it important?
Intended state of the process
Why is the term "chain" misleading?
It's more like a network, doesn't just move one way or one direction
What is a JAD session?
Joint Application Development (JAD) - developers and users in the same room to understand needs of the system
How can technology adjust a break-even analysis?
Justifying an IT investment involves calculating the costs, assessing the benefits (values), and comparing the two, also known as a cost-benefit analysis. No uniform strategy, four common approaches: Break-even analysis: Determines point at which the cumulative dollar value of the benefits from a project equals the investment made in the project.
What is a KPI? A Critical Success Factor (CSF)?
Key Performance Indicator: shows how a team is doing CSF: A management term for an element that is necessary for an organization or project to achieve its mission.
What are the CRM components that are used for solicitation/lead tracking and relationship management?
Lead Management Application (Marketing) Relationship/Social media (Acquisition)
Excel PivotTables - rows, columns, data area, filter, drill down (4)
Look at excel (4)
What are the 4 phases of Customer Life Cycle? Do you know the order of the phases?
Marketing Customer acquisition Relationship management Loss/Churn
Please practice SQL using the web sites we used in class and for your homework.
MySQLZoo
Can all projects be run in agile development?
NOOOO, easy to assume agile is better than waterfall, better for different things, Waterfall over agile: more to do with scope and scale (building a building, airplane, house, ERP over organization) Agile over waterfall: building websites, software developments Can you briefly describe Scrum? One of the agile project methodologies, utilizes small teams with small projects where they can get something running quickly, there is a backlog and then you run that into 2-4-8 week sprints and those meets requirements, and you meet with team and talk about the things that need to be done for the first 15 minutes and explain: Yesterday, today and impediments Product owner to curate backlog and create sprint backlog Scrum master to keep team organized and an impediment bulldozer so problems get smoothed out Team members get work done get the user stuff done
Why is OLAP different than OLTP?
OLTP- This processes smaller scale information such as: Who is paying their bills? How much money is spent on advertising? These typically ask what has happened OLAP- This is bigger scale (Data Warehouse) where it interprets the OLTP Data and asks bigger questions such as: What new advertising strategies need to be undertaken to reach our customers who can afford a high-priced product? These typically ask what will happen
What are Information/Organizational Silos, why do they occur, what kind of problems can they cause, and how can they be "solved"?
Occurs when data is isolated in separated information systems (each IS silo meet sits own needs, may contain similar database, each silo uses data for a diff. purpose) Problems: Data inconsistency, increased expense, lack of integrated information, disjointed processes Solutions: Need to integrate all of an organization's areas (purchasing, HR, production
What is a business process? What are the components of a business process?
Ongoing collection of related activities that create a product or a service of value to the organization, its business partners, and/or its customers. Components: (Inputs, resources, and outputs) Inputs: Materials, services, and information that flow through and are transformed as a result of process activities Resources: People and equipment that perform process activities Outputs: The product or a service created by the process
What is OLAP?
Online analytical processing-manipulation of information to support decision making Provides ability to sum, count, average, and perform other simple arithmetic operations on groups of data OLAP Reports: Measure- a data item of interest:total sales, average sales, etc. Dimension-characteristic or descriptor: salesperson, purchase date, etc
What are examples of SMIS that are used across an organization's Value Chain?
Online survey Social media analyzing Social media marketing and customer service
What is a Pareto Analysis? SWOT Analysis? Management By Objectives (MBO)?
Pareto Analysis: Formal technique useful where many possible courses of action are competing for attention. In essence, the problem-solver estimates the benefit delivered by each action, then selects a number of the most effective actions that deliver a total benefit reasonably close to the maximal possible one. uses the Pareto Principle (also known as the 80/20 rule) the idea that by doing 20% of the work you can generate 80% of the benefit of doing the entire job. 80% of issues come from 20% of things SWOT Analysis : Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats and is a structured planning method that evaluates those four elements of a project or business venture; Can be carried out for a company, product, place, industry, or person. (Similar to Porter's Five Forces analysis) Management by Objectives-MBO: Top level management lays out the organizational strategic plan based on organization objectives and then work with management to set up own objectives to go along with the plan.
How can the balance between data and opinion driven decision-making be impacted?
People often trust their "instinct" and make business decisions (even risky ones) based off of opinion No one is above data because it gives factual information to make decisions from
How/Why is the "waterfall nature of SDLC" is problematic?
Planning - Analysis - Design - Implementation - System Each phase goes on into the next and once you pass a phase, it's very hard to go back.
What is Predictive Modeling?
Process of creating, testing and validating a model to best predict the probability of an outcome
What is meant by an "as-is" model and why is it important?
Processes as it exists in the world now
What is Just-in-time (JIT), and why do organizations want to implement this practice?
Producing or delivering the p/s just as the customer wants it (Key feature of SCM) (Risky if any member slacks off)
What is MapReduce and why is it needed?
Programming model & an associated implementation for processing and generating large data sets with a parallel, distributed algorithm on a cluster.
Can you briefly explain the concept of Statistical Control?
Quality and production problems come from "the system" not from individual workers, use information you understand the "typical" behavior of your system, once you know how your team typically performs, you can improve it and measure your improvement
What is SLATES in relationship to SMIS and Enterprise 2.0?
Search, Links, Authorship, Tags, Extensions, Signals
What are some key ways to improve or refine a process (go from serial to parallel, etc)?
Serial process(sequential process) to parallel process(simultaneous processes) Implement information systems/use technology: buy new workflow software, implement slack... Theory of constraints: identify, isolate, subordinate all work to constraint(march to pace of the Herbie, called Drum Buffer Rope), elevate the constraint, find the next constraint
Difference between parallel and serial performance of processes?
Serial: sequential processes, step by step Parallel: simultaneous processes
What are the major differences between small projects and large projects?
Small: Simple requirements, few processes affected, little IT expertise, short development interval, limited budget, informal, inexperienced, often naive, operations support by users, security, backup, and recovery lax Large: Complex requirements, many processes affected, IT personnel with diverse backgrounds, long development interval, large budget, formal/structured, experienced, sometimes cynical, professional operations support, security, backup, recovery important and managed
What is a data mart? How is it different from a data warehouse?
Smaller more concentrated data warehouse
What is a "Defender of Belief"?
Someone who shares a common belief, convinces others, conformity, involves sales and marketing, has strong bonds and allegiance to an organization
How is supervised data mining different from unsupervised data mining?
Supervised (develop a model prior to analysis and apply statistical techniques to data to estimate parameters, used for prediction usually have a relationship in mind that you are testing ex: regression analysis MATH/NUMBERS) Unsupervised (analyst does not have a prior hypotheses or model, hypotheses created after to explain patterns found ex: cluster analysis, does not have a prior model about patterns and relationship)
What steps or organization types or typically involved in a supply chain?
Supplier Manufacturer Distribution Retailer Customer
What is the Long Tail, and how does E-commerce make it possible?
The 80% of products that accounts for 20% of revenues, you have to account for the un selling products
What is a "Definition of Done"?
The most important thing when planning a project is knowing when you're done If you don't know, you run the risk of working on it forever and will experience diminishing returns
What is a supply chain?
The movement of resources from organizations to end consumer
What is E-commerce?
The process of buying, selling, transferring, or exchanging products, services, or information via computer networks, including the Internet
What's the difference between supply-chain profitability and organizational profitability?
The two are necessarily the same thing supply chain sometimes you have to set aside your own business
How has the Customer Decision Journey changed in the presence of Social Media?
They now have hundreds to thousands of people reviewing products and can base decisions off of that information
Discuss the importance of processes being in a particular order
This is important because we otherwise run the risk of painting ourselves into a corner and creating additional work for everyone.
What is the fundamental difference between top line and bottom line initiatives? How does this impact our strategic decision-making regarding CRM systems and their implementation?
Top line - customer facing revenue generating (Marketing, Customer Support) Bottom Line - cost reduction, related to costs (inbound log, operations, outbound log)
What is supply chain management (SCM)?
Tracks inventory and information among business process and across firms (network and not chain)
What is the "Gig" Economy?
Uber Lyft Task rabbit
What factors affect SCM performance?
Uncertainty and miscommunication
What is a Social Media Information System (SMIS)? How is it used?
Use of IT to support sharing of content among networks of users
What are the three V's of Big Data?
Velocity Volume Variety
Between what dimensions are the key trade-offs in Project Management?
Waterfall (Traditional): Plan drive, infrequent client communication, "Big Bang" delivery, requirements defined up front, develop in distinct phases with interim paper deliverables, develop in layers, view programming as construction, integration of different layers occur at end of build phase, testing at separate phase at end , emphasizing functional level, HIGH COST OF CHANGE Agile: Learning driven, continuous client communication, short, business focussed releases, JIT requirements, develop and deliver working code in 2 week iterations, develop in end-to-end functional slices, view programming as design, continuously integrate codes throughout (hourly builds), fully-automated, continuous testing at both functional and unit level, LOW COST OF CHANGE
What are the four ways organizations can implement a system conversion?
Waterfall: Planning - Analysis - Design - Implementation - System Each phase goes on into the next and once you pass a phase, it's very hard to go back. Parallel: Planning - Analysis - Design - (Design - Implementation x 3: sub projects) - Integration - System Subdivide projects Phased: Planning - Analysis - (Analysis - Design - Implementation x3) - System version 1/2/3 JAD, RAD, and XP: JAD: A group of developers and users sit together to discuss project; the developers go make a prototypes so the users can test them all out in another JAD session; the developers go fix everything.
What are the different iterations of Web Technology (1.0-4.0) and what are examples of each?
Web 1.0: Read Only Web 2.0: Read and Write Web 3.0: Read, Write, and Execute, Web 4.0: Read, Write, and Execute concurrently