Chapter 1 - 3 Midterm Study Guide

38) This measure of dispersion is calculated by simply taking the square root of the variations. A) standard deviation B) range C) variance D) arithmetic mean

A) standard deviation

34) When representing data in a data warehouse, using several dimension tables that are each connected only to a fact table means you are using which warehouse structure? A) star schema B) snowflake schema C) relational schema D) dimensional schema

A) star schema

22) Operational or transaction databases are product oriented, handling transactions that update the database. In contrast, data warehouses are A) subject-oriented and nonvolatile. B) product-oriented and nonvolatile. C) product-oriented and volatile. D) subject-oriented and volatile.

A) subject-oriented and nonvolatile.

36) 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.

B) All a user needs to do is insert the numbers.

39) How does the use of cloud computing affect the scalability of a data warehouse? A) Cloud computing vendors bring as much hardware as needed to users' offices. B) Hardware resources are dynamically allocated as use increases. C) Cloud vendors are mostly based overseas where the cost of labor is low. D) Cloud computing has little effect on a data warehouse's scalability.

B) Hardware resources are dynamically allocated as use increases.

36) What is Six Sigma? A) a letter in the Greek alphabet that statisticians use to measure process variability B) a methodology aimed at reducing the number of defects in a business process C) a methodology aimed at reducing the amount of variability in a business process D) a methodology aimed at measuring the amount of variability in a business process

B) a methodology aimed at reducing the number of defects in a business process

31) When you tell a story in a presentation, all of the following are true EXCEPT A) a story should make sense and order out of a lot of background noise. B) a well-told story should have no need for subsequent discussion. C) stories and their lessons should be easy to remember. D) the outcome and reasons for it should be clear at the end of your story.

B) a well-told story should have no need for subsequent discussion.

23) Kaplan and Norton developed a report that presents an integrated view of success in the organization called A) metric management reports. B) balanced scorecard-type reports. C) dashboard-type reports. D) visual reports.

B) balanced scorecard-type reports.

33) How are enterprise resources planning (ERP) systems related to supply chain management (SCM) systems? A) different terms for the same system B) complementary systems C) mutually exclusive systems D) none of the above; these systems never interface

B) complementary systems

40) This technique makes no a priori assumption of whether one variable is dependent on the other(s) and is not concerned with the relationship between variables; instead it gives an estimate on the degree of association between the variables. A) regression B) correlation C) means test D) multiple regression

B) correlation

29) Which approach to data warehouse integration focuses more on sharing process functionality than data across systems? A) extraction, transformation, and load B) enterprise application integration C) enterprise information integration D) enterprise function integration

B) enterprise application integration

29) Which type of visualization tool can be very helpful when a data set contains location data? A) bar chart B) geographic map C) highlight table D) tree map

B) geographic map

26) Which of the following BEST enables a data warehouse to handle complex queries and scale up to handle many more requests? A) use of the Web by users as a front-end B) parallel processing C) Microsoft Windows D) a larger IT staff

B) parallel processing

37) What type of analytics seeks to recognize what is going on as well as the likely forecast and make decisions to achieve the best performance possible? A) descriptive B) prescriptive C) predictive D) domain

B) prescriptive

29) The competitive imperatives for BI include all of the following EXCEPT A) right information B) right user C) right time D) right place

B) right user

32) Data warehouses provide direct and indirect benefits to organizations. Which of the following is an indirect benefit of data warehouses? A) better and more timely information B) extensive new analyses performed by users C) simplified access to data D) improved customer service

D) improved customer service

22) Key performance indicators (KPIs) are metrics typically used to measure A) database responsiveness. B) qualitative feedback. C) external results. D) internal results.

D) internal results.

40) All of the following are true about in-database processing technology EXCEPT A) it pushes the algorithms to where the data is. B) it makes the response to queries much faster than conventional databases. C) it is often used for apps like credit card fraud detection and investment risk management. D) it is the same as in-memory storage technology.

D) it is the same as in-memory storage technology.

24) Which of the following developments is NOT contributing to facilitating growth of decision support and analytics? A) collaboration technologies B) Big Data C) knowledge management systems D) locally concentrated workforces

D) locally concentrated workforces

24) Oper marts are created when operational data needs to be analyzed A) linearly. B) in a dashboard. C) unidimensionally. D) multidimensionally.

D) multidimensionally.

35) Contextual metadata for a dashboard includes all the following EXCEPT A) whether any high-value transactions that would skew the overall trends were rejected as a part of the loading process. B) which operating system is running the dashboard server software. C) whether the dashboard is presenting "fresh" or "stale" information. D) when the data warehouse was last refreshed.

B) which operating system is running the dashboard server software.

31) 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.

C) a distinct system that provides storage for data that will be made use of in analysis.

39) This plot is a graphical illustration of several descriptive statistics about a given data set. A) pie chart B) bar graph C) box-and-whiskers plot D) kurtosis

C) box-and-whiskers plot

38) A large storage location that can hold vast quantities of data (mostly unstructured) in its native/raw format for future/potential analytics consumption is referred to as a(n) A) extended ASP. B) data cloud. C) data lake. D) relational database.

C) data lake.

23) Business applications have moved from transaction processing and monitoring to other activities. Which of the following is NOT one of those activities? A) problem analysis B) solution applications C) data monitoring D) mobile access

C) data monitoring

21) Which characteristic of data means that all the required data elements are included in the data set? A) data source reliability B) data accessibility C) data richness D) data granularity

C) data richness

27) The need for more versatile reporting than what was available in 1980s era ERP systems led to the development of what type of system? A) management information systems B) relational databases C) executive information systems D) data warehouses

C) executive information systems

33) All of the following are benefits of hosted data warehouses EXCEPT A) smaller upfront investment. B) better quality hardware. C) greater control of data. D) frees up in-house systems.

C) greater control of data.

28) Which data warehouse architecture uses a normalized relational warehouse that feeds multiple data marts? A) independent data marts architecture B) centralized data warehouse architecture C) hub-and-spoke data warehouse architecture D) federated architecture

C) hub-and-spoke data warehouse architecture

23) Which kind of data warehouse is created separately from the enterprise data warehouse by a department and not reliant on it for updates? A) sectional data mart B) public data mart C) independent data mart D) volatile data mart

C) independent data mart

26) The Internet emerged as a new medium for visualization and brought all the following EXCEPT A) worldwide digital distribution of visualization. B) immersive environments for consuming data. C) new forms of computation of business logic. D) new graphics displays through PC displays.

C) new forms of computation of business logic.

28) Which type of visualization tool can be very helpful when the intention is to show relative proportions of dollars per department allocated by a university administration? A) heat map B) bullet C) pie chart D) bubble chart

C) pie chart

38) What type of analytics seeks to determine what is likely to happen in the future? A) descriptive B) prescriptive C) predictive D) domain

C) predictive

30) Which of the following is NOT an example of transaction processing? A) ATM withdrawal B) bank deposit C) sales report D) cash register scans

C) sales report

37) Real-time data warehousing can be used to support the highest level of decision making sophistication and power. The major feature that enables this in relation to handling the data is A) country of (data) origin. B) nature of the data. C) speed of data transfer. D) source of the data.

C) speed of data transfer.

35) 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

C) the more pressing need to close the gap between the operational data and strategic objectives

36) Dashboards can be presented at all the following levels EXCEPT A) the visual dashboard level. B) the static report level. C) the visual cube level. D) the self-service cube level.

C) the visual cube level.

32) Benefits of the latest visual analytics tools, such as SAS Visual Analytics, include all of the following EXCEPT A) mobile platforms such as the iPhone are supported by these products. B) it is easier to spot useful patterns and trends in the data. C) they explore massive amounts of data in hours, not days. D) there is less demand on IT departments for reports.

C) they explore massive amounts of data in hours, not days.

25) A Web client that connects to a Web server, which is in turn connected to a BI application server, is reflective of a A) one-tier architecture. B) two-tier architecture. C) three-tier architecture. D) four-tier architecture.

C) three-tier architecture.

28) Which of the following is an umbrella term that combines architectures, tools, databases, analytical tools, applications, and methodologies? A) MIS B) DSS C) ERP D) BI

D) BI

34) BI applications must be integrated with A) databases. B) legacy systems. C) enterprise systems. D) all of these

D) all of these

37) This measure of central tendency is the sum of all the values/observations divided by the number of observations in the data set. A) dispersion B) mode C) median D) arithmetic mean

D) arithmetic mean

21) Why is a performance management system superior to a performance measurement system? A) because performance measurement systems are only in their infancy B) because measurement automatically leads to problem solution C) because performance management systems cost more D) because measurement alone has little use without action

D) because measurement alone has little use without action

27) Which kind of chart is described as an enhanced version of a scatter plot? A) heat map B) bullet C) pie chart D) bubble chart

D) bubble chart

31) In which stage of extraction, transformation, and load (ETL) into a data warehouse are anomalies detected and corrected? A) transformation B) extraction C) load D) cleanse

D) cleanse

24) Which characteristic of data requires that the variables and data values be defined at the lowest (or as low as required) level of detail for the intended use of the data? A) data source reliability B) data accessibility C) data richness D) data granularity

D) data granularity

35) When querying a dimensional database, a user went from summarized data to its underlying details. The function that served this purpose is A) dice. B) slice. C) roll-up. D) drill down.

D) drill down.

34) What is the fundamental challenge of dashboard design? A) ensuring that users across the organization have access to it B) ensuring that the organization has the appropriate hardware onsite to support it C) ensuring that the organization has access to the latest Web browsers D) ensuring that the required information is shown clearly on a single screen

D) ensuring that the required information is shown clearly on a single screen

27) Which data warehouse architecture uses metadata from existing data warehouses to create a hybrid logical data warehouse comprised of data from the other warehouses? A) independent data marts architecture B) centralized data warehouse architecture C) hub-and-spoke data warehouse architecture D) federated architecture

D) federated architecture

25) Which of the following is LEAST related to data/information visualization? A) information graphics B) scientific visualization C) statistical graphics D) graphic artwork

D) graphic artwork

30) ________ is an evolving tool space that promises real-time data integration from a variety of sources, such as relational databases, Web services, and multidimensional databases. A) Enterprise information integration (EII) B) Enterprise application integration (EAI) C) Extraction, transformation, and load (ETL) D) None of these

A) Enterprise information integration (EII)

30) Which type of question does visual analytics seeks to answer? A) Why is it happening? B) What happened yesterday? C) What is happening today? D) When did it happen?

A) Why is it happening?

32) The very design that makes an OLTP system efficient for transaction processing makes it inefficient for 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.

A) end-user ad hoc reports, queries, and analysis.

33) What is the management feature of a dashboard? A) operational data that identify what actions to take to resolve a problem B) summarized dimensional data to analyze the root cause of problems C) summarized dimensional data to monitor key performance metrics D) graphical, abstracted data to monitor key performance metrics

A) operational data that identify what actions to take to resolve a problem