Systems Analysis and Design Ch 5,6,7 Exam
An arrow on a data-flow diagram represents an:
Process
The primary deliverable from the conceptual data-modeling step within the analysis phase is:
an entity-relationship diagram
Determining requirements and structuring requirements are associated with:
Systems analysis
A relationship between the instances of one entity type is a:
Unary relationship
Techniques used for modeling system logic include:
Decision tables
The purpose of requirements structuring is to:
Enable the large amount of information gathered during requirements determination to be organized
A renewal is an example of a:
Entity
On an entity-relationship diagram, a rectangle represents a:
Entity
A single occurrence of an entity type defines:
Entity Instance
A collection of entities that share common properties or characteristics best defines:
Entity type
The official way a system works as described in organizational documentation is referred to as a:
Formal System
During systems planning and selection:
An enterprise-wide data model is prepared
A good number of alternatives to generate is:
3
In theory, if there are four sources of application software, two implementation environments, and three sets of requirements, how many design strategies are possible?
24
During systems analysis
A conceptual data model (ER with attributes) is prepared
Which of the following is a true statement regarding data flows?
A join in a data flow means that exactly the same data come from any of two or more different processes, data stores, or sources/sinks to a common location
An attribute that can have more than one value for each entity instance is referred to as:
A multivalued attribue
Which of the following is NOT a process modeling deliverable?
An entity relationship diagram
The primary deliverables from requirements determination include:
All of the above
Which of the following is produced and analyzed during conceptual data modeling?
An entity relationship diagram for the project's application
Which of the following is produced and analyzed during conceptual data modeling
An entity relationship diagram for the projects application
Which of the following is a true statement?
An information system design based on a data orientation, rather than a process or logic orientation, should have a longer useful life
If a data flow appears on the context diagram and is also represented on a level-0 diagram, this would be referred to as:
Balancing
The conservation of inputs and outputs to a data-flow diagram process when that process is decomposed to a lower level defines:
Balancing
If your analysis of several written procedures reveals a duplication of effort in two jobs, you should:
Call the duplication to the attention of management as an issue to be resolved before system design can proceed
An attribute (Or combination of attributes that uniquely identifies each instance of an entity type defines:
Candidate key
The number of instances of entity B that can (or must associated with each instance of entity A refers to:
Cardinality
Questions in interviews and on questionnaires asking those responding to choose from among
Close-ended questions
The extent to which all necessary components of a data-flow diagram have been included and full described defines:
DFD completeness
The extent to which information contained on one level of a set of nested data-flow diagrams is also included on other levels refer to:
DFD consistency
Data contained on a customer order form would be represented on a data-flow diagram as a:
Data Flow
The number of entity types that participate in a relationship refers to:
Degree
A written work procedure:
Describes how a particular job or task is performed, including data and information that are used and created in the process of performing the job
Which of the following includes statements on the system's functionality, hardware and system software platform, and method for acquisition
Design Strategy
A particular approach to developing an information system best describes:
Design strategy
A detailed, logical, and graphical representation of the entities, associations, and data elements for an organization or business area best describes a:
Entity-relationship diagram or E-R diagram
The most common format used for data modeling is:
Entity-relationship diagramming
Which of the following is a true statement regarding high-end alternatives?
Functionality is the primary focus of high-end alternative design strategies
A black hole is a process that:
Has only inputs
A miracle process is one that:
Has only outputs:
A candidate key that has been selected as the unique, identifying characteristic of an entity type is called a:
Identifier
Forms are important for understanding a business because they:
Indicate what data flow in or out of a system and which are necessary for the system to functions
The way a system actually works is referred to as a:
Informal system
Asking systems users and business managers "is each activity or event always handled the same way or are there special circumstances?" helps determine:
Integrity rules, minimum and maximum cardinality, and time dimensions of data
Traditional methods of collecting systems requirements include:
Interviews
Which of the following is a modern method for collecting system requirements?
Joint application design
The minimum requirements for the new system are called:
Mandatory features
Which of the following is a traditional method of collecting systems requirements?
Observations
Questions in interviews and on questionnaires that have no pre-specified answers are:
Open-ended questions
Which of the following is a reason for directly observing end users?
People often do not have completely accurate appreciation of what they do or how they do it
A "many" maximum cardinality is noted on the E-R diagram by:
Placing a crow's foot notation near the entity
One advantage of open-ended questions in an interview is:
Previously unknown information can result
When you believe that you have shown each business form or transaction, computer screen, and report as a single data flow, you have probably reached the:
Primitive data-flow diagrams
An association between the instances of one or more entity types that is of interest to the organization best defines:
Relationship
Ensuring that every fact fits with every other fact best describes:
The attention to details characteristic a systems analyst need during requirements determination
Questioning everything best describes:
The impertinence characteristic a systems analyst needs during requirements determination
If entity B is a mandatory participant, then:
The minimum cardinality of the relationship is one
When comparing observations and document analysis:
The potential audience of the observation method is limited
Which of the following is a true statement regarding JAD
The primary purpose of using JAD in the analysis phase is to collect systems requirements simultaneously from the key people involved with the system
Which of the following is a true statement regarding the context diagram?
The process symbol is labeled "0"
Assuming anything is possible and eliminating the infeasible best describes:
The relaxing of constraints characteristic a systems analyst needs during requirements determination
Process, logic, and data-model descriptions of a system must be consistent and complete since:
They each describe different but complementary views of the same information system
A ternary relationship occurs when a simultaneous relationship exists among instances of:
Three entity types
The data modeling perspective that derives the business rules for a data model from an intimate understanding go the nature of the business, rather than from any specific information requirements in screens, reports, or business forms, is referred to as the:
Top-down approach
On an entity-relationship diagram, the entity's identifier is:
Underlined on an E-R diagram
Having a level-1 diagram with no level-0 diagram is an example of a
Violation of consistency
Forms are most useful:
When they contain actual organizational data
There impertinence characteristic of a good systems analyst is represented by which of the following statements?
You Should Question Everything
During systems design:
a logical model (relational is prepared)
If STUDENT and COURSE participate in a relationship, this is an example of a:
binary relationship
Reviewing computer screens, reports, and business forms for the purpose of gaining an understanding of data is indicative of the
bottom-up approach
If your DFD contains data flows that do not lead anywhere, it is not:
complete
The act of going from a single system to several component processes refers to
decomposition
By placing a data store between two processes, this:
decouples the processes
A report:
enables you to work backward from the information on the document and identify the data that must have been necessary to generate it
The process of discovering discrepancies between two or more sets of data-flow diagrams or discrepancies within a single DFD is referred to as:
gap analysis
The lowest level of decomposition for a data-flow diagram is called the
primitive diagram
The part of a decision table that links conditions to actions is the section that contains the
rules
A supplier of auto parts to your company would be represented on a data-flow diagram as a:
Source
The origin and/or destination of data, sometimes, referred to as external entities defines:
Source
Conceptual data modeling is typically done in parallel with other requirements analysis and structuring steps during:
Systems analysis
A simultaneous relationship among instances of three entity types is a:
Ternary relationship
The reframing characteristic of a good systems analyst is represented by which of the following statements?
You must challenge yourself to look at the organization in new ways
The Impartiality characteristic of a good systems analyst is represented by which of the following statements?
Your role is to find the best solution to a business problem or opportunity
If an input from a source appears on a level-0 diagram, it must:
appear on the context diagram
The alternative that goes beyond simply solving the problem in question and focuses instead on systems that contain many extra features users may desire is referred to as a:
high-end alternative
The calculation of an employee's salary would be represented on a data-flow diagram as an
process
on a data-flow diagram, a rectangle with rounded corners represents an
process
Which of the following is a true statement?
A data entity will have many possible instances
Which of the following is NOT a true statement regrading data flows
A data flow can go directly back to the same process it leaves
Which of the following is a true statement?
A data model explains what the organization does and what rules govern how work is done in the organization
Which of the following is true statement regarding a data store?
A data store has a noun phrase label
Which of the following is most likely a source/sink for a manufacturing system?
A. A customer B. A supplier C. Another information system D. A bank E. All of the above*
Which of the following is a true statement regarding sources/sinks?
A. Data must originate outside a system from one or more sources. B. The system must produce information to one or more sinks. C. Sources/sinks are always outside the information system and define the boundaries of the system. D. If any processing takes place inside the source/sink, we are not interested in it. E. All of the above are true statements.*
Which of the following system requirement determination techniques can be applied to discovering and understanding key business processes
A. JAD B. Document analysis C. Observation D. Interview E. All of the above*
Which of the following are organizational components that a systems analyst needs to understand?
A. Key events affecting data values and when these events occur B. Policies and guidelines that describe the nature of the business, the market, and the environment in which it operates C. The sequence and other dependencies among different data-handling activities D. The data handled within the organization to support the jobs E. All of the above
Which of the following is a true statement?
A. Mandatory features screen out possible solutions; essential features are the important capabilities of a system that will serve as the primary basis for comparison of different design strategies
Which of the follow is a true statement?
A. The goal of conceptual data modeling is to capture as much of the meaning of data as is possible. B. The efficiencies gained by maintaining systems at the rule rather than code level drastically reduce cost. C. If a thorough repository of data descriptions is kept, the system can be regenerated as the business rules change. D. The more details about data that we can model, the better the system we can design and build. E. All of the above are true statements.*
Which of the following would be considered when diagramming?
A. The interactions occurring between sources and sinks B. How to provide sources and sinks direct access to stored data C. How to control or redesign a source or sink D. What a source or sink does with information or how it operates E. None of the above*
Which of the following can be considered an advantage of open-ended questions?
A. The interviewer can explore unexpected lines of inquiry. B. Open-ended questions often put the interviewee at ease. C. The interviewee has a sense of involvement and control in the interview. D. Interviewees can respond in their own words using their own structure. E. All of the above
When reviewing job procedures, you may find:
A. a missing procedure. B. duplicate procedures. C. out of date procedures. D. a contradiction between a formal procedure and interview or observation results. E. all of the above.
The typical participants in a JAD include:
A. a session leader. B. a scribe. C. a sponsor. D. systems analysts. E. all of the above.*
Drawbacks to prototyping include:
A. a tendency to avoid creating formal documentation of systems requirements which can then make the system more difficult to develop into a fully working system. B. prototypes becoming very idiosyncratic to the initial user and difficult to diffuse or adapt to other potential users. C. prototypes are often built as stand-alone systems. D. checks in the SDLC are bypassed so that some more subtle, but still important, system requirements might be forgotten. E. all of the above.*
Constraints on systems development may include such factors as:
A. available financial and human resources. B. elements of the current system that cannot change. C. legal and contractual restrictions. D. a date when the current system is needed. E. all of the above.
The types of customers to be supported by Pine Valley Furniture's new webstore include:
A. corporate customers. B. home office customers. C. student customers. D. all of the above. *
System features might include
A. data kept in system files. B. system outputs. C. analyses to generate the information in system outputs. D. expectations on accessibility, response time, or turn-around time for system functions. E. all of the above.*
Disruptive technologies include:
A. distributed databases. B. expert systems. C. decision support tools. D. automatic identification and tracking technology. E. all of the above.*
Shaping alternative system design strategies involves:
A. enumerating different potential implementation environments. B. proposing different ways to source or acquire the various sets of capabilities for the different implementation environments. C. dividing requirements into different sets of capabilities. D. all of the above.
Selecting the best alternative system involves
A. generating a comprehensive set of alternative design strategies. B. selecting the alternative design strategy that is most likely to result in the desired information system, given all of the organizational, economic, and technical constraints that limit what can be done. E. both A and B.*
The analysis of documents can help you identify:
A. problems with existing systems. B. special information processing circumstances that occur irregularly and may not be identified by any other requirements determination technique. C. the reason why current systems are designed the way they are. D. the organizational direction that can influence information system requirements. E. all of the above.
Some System developers believe that a data model is the most important part of the statement of information system requirements because:
A. the characteristics of data captured during data modeling are crucial in the design of databases, programs, computer screens, and printed reports. B. data rather than processes are the most complex aspects of many modern information systems and thus require a central role in structuring system requirements. C. the characteristics about data are reasonably permanent. D. structural information about data is essential to generate programs automatically. E. of all of the above.*
The part of a decision table that lists the actions that result for a given set of conditions is called:
Action stubs
During which of the following steps will you bring the current phase to a close, prepare a report and presentation to management concerning continuation of the project, and get ready to move the project into design?
Alternative generation and selection
Dividing requirements into different sets of capabilities, ranging from the bare minimum that users would accept to the most elaborate and advanced system the company could afford to develop occurs during the:
Alternative generation and selection step of the analysis phase
Enumerating different potential implementation environments that could be used to deliver the different sets of capability occurs during the:
Alternative generation and selection step of the analysis phase.
The term that refers to systems development projects bogged down in an abundance of analysis of work is:
Analysis Paralysis
A relationship that the data modeler chooses to model as an entity type best defines:
Associative entity
A named property or characteristic of an entity that is of interest to the organization defines:
Attribute
Vehicle identification number, color, weight, and horsepower best exemplify:
Attributes
Which of the following technologies disrupted the business rule of you having to find out where things are?
Automatic identification and tracking technology
If Two processes are connected by a data flow, they are said to:
Be couple to each other
A relationship between instances of two entity types is a:
Binary relationship
Gathering the information you need for data modeling by reviewing specific business documents handled within the system describes the:
Bottom-up approach
The search for, and implementation of, radical change in business processes to achieve breakthrough improvements in products and services best defines:
Business process reengineering
When selecting an identifier, one should:
Choose a candidate key that will not change its value over the life of each instance of the entity type
Rating a response or idea on some scale, say from strongly agree to strongly disagree, would be classified as a:
Close-ended question
Which of the following can be considered an advantage of close-ended questions
Closed-ended questions work well when the major answers to the questions are well known
Prototyping is most useful for requirements determination when:
Communication problems have existed in the past between users and analsyts
The diagram that shows the scope of the system, indicating what elements are inside and outside the system, is called a:
Context diagram
Data in motion, moving from one place in a system to another, best describes a:
Data Flow
A file folder contains oders would be represented on a data-flow diagram as a:
Data Store
On a data-flow diagram, a rectangle with the right vertical line missing represents a:
Data Store
Student data contained on an enrollment form would be represented on a data-flow diagram as a:
Data flow
Data at rest, which may take the form of many different physical representations, best describes a:
Data store
During systems implementation and operation:
Database and file definitions are prepared
Technologies that enable the breaking of long-held business rules that inhibit organizations from making radical business changes best defines:
Disruptive technologies
Which of the following technologies disrupted the business rule that information can appear only in one place at a time?
Distributed databases
A person, place, object, or concept in the user environment about which the organization wishes to maintain data refers to a
Entity
A product is an example of a:
Entity
Which of the following is an advantage of close-ended questions?
Interviews based on close-ended questions do not necessarily require a large time commitment, so more topics can be covered
Techniques developed to keep the analysis effort minimal, yet still effective include:
JAD
The structured, measured set of activities designed to produce a specific output for a particular customer or market best defines:
Key business processes
A data-flow diagram that represents a system's major processes, data flows, and data stores at a high level of detail refers to a:
Level-0 Diagram
A DFD that is result of three nested decompositions of a series of subprocesses from a process on a level-0 diagram describes a:
Level-3 diagram
The most conservative solutions in terms of the effort, cost, and technology involved developing a new system are the:
Low-end solutions
Which of the following JAD participants use the system in question and provide insight into new organizational directions, motivations for and organizational impacts of systems, and support for requirements determined during the JAD
Managers
Features that everyone agrees are necessary to solve the problem or meet the opportunity called:
Mandatory features
Which of the following is a true statement regarding midrange alternatives?
Midrange alternative design strategies represent compromise solutions
Which of the following types of alternatives represent compromise solutions?
Midrange alternatives
The minimum number of instances of entity B that may be associated with each instance of entity A defines the:
Minimum cardinality of the relationship
Data-flow diagrams allow you to:
Model how data flow through an information system
If each employee can have more than one skill, then skill is referred to as:
Multivalued attribute
Identifying mandatory features by surveying users and other stakeholders who have been involved in requirements determination would occur:
Near the end of the analysis phase, after all requirements have been structured and analyzed
The lowest level of DFDs are:
Primitive data-flows diagrams
A computer-based file contains employee information would be represented on a data-flow diagram as an:
Process
The work or actions performed on data so that they are transformed, stored, or distributed defines:
Process
Graphically representing the processes that capture, manipulate, store, and distribute data between a system and its environment and among components within a system refers to:
Process Modeling
Since data-flow diagrams concentrate on the movement of data between processes, these diagrams are often referred to as:
Process models
On a data-flow diagram, you may:
Repeat both data stores and sources/sinks
A set of two or more multivalued attributes that are logically related defines:
Repeating group
Analyst gathering information from as many sources as possible about what the new system should do is indicative of:
Requirement determination
Which of the following is a subphase of analysis?
Requirements Determination
The person who makes detailed notes of the happenings at a joint application design session is refereed to as the:
Scribe
Asking system users and managers "Who is responsible for establishing legitimate values for these data?" Helps determine:
Security controls and understanding who really knows the meaning of data
Good interview guidelines consist of:
Seeking a variety of perspective from the interviews
The trained individual who plans and leads joint application design sessions is referred to as the:
Session leader
A square on a data-flow diagram represents a:
Source
