Chapter 14

________ methods rely on measures of cash flows into and out of the firm.

Capital budgeting

Which of the following is not something you would use to control risk factors in an information systems project?

Capital budgeting models

Which of the following is at the top of the management structure for information systems projects in a large company?

Corporate strategic planning group and information systems steering committee

Which of the following would not be covered in the Strategic Business Plan Rationale section of an information systems plan?

Current infrastructure capabilities

As discussed in the chapter, which of the following is not one of the immediate consequences of inadequate software project management?

Customer loyalty

Which of the following would not be covered in the Budget Requirements section of an information systems plan?

Difficulties meeting business requirements

According to the Project Management Institute, what is the leading factor in project success?

Executive sponsors who are actively engaged

Which of the following is not a factor in the high failure rate of reengineering systems projects?

Failures of the new technologies to perform according to plan

The cost of a project is based on the time to complete a project multiplied by the cost of computer resources required to complete the project.

False

Which of the following helps project managers identify bottlenecks in project development?

Formal planning and control tools

Which of the following is not one of the activities of the systems analyst?

Formulating of capital budgeting models

Which type of planning tool shows each task as a horizontal bar whose length is proportional to the time required to complete it?

Gantt chart

You are using a capital budgeting method to assess the worth of your company's new information system. Which of the following costs would you include in measuring the cash outflow?

Hardware, software, and labor expenditures

A firm in the finance industry should do which of the following to ensure that it stays current with technology?

Have a few high-risk, high-benefit projects

You have been hired by a firm in a non-information-intensive industry to evaluate its inventory of systems and IT projects. Which types of projects should the firm focus on?

High-benefit, low-risk projects

Which of the following is an example of using an internal integration tool?

Holding frequent project team meetings

The ________ is composed of department heads from both end-user and information systems areas.

IS steering committee

As described in the text, which of the following statements about runaway or failed IT projects is not true?

IT projects often fail because they lack sufficient computing capacity.

Which of the following strategies represents the proper approach to a low risk, high reward project?

Identify and develop

Which of the following refers to all organizational activities working toward the adoption, management, and routinization of a new information system?

Implementation

Which of the following is not a tangible benefit of information systems?

Improved resource control

Which of the following is a limitation of using a financial approach to evaluate information systems?

Inability to assess costs from organizational disruption

Which of the following is an example of using an external integration tool?

Including user representatives as active members of the project team

Which of the following statements about the user-designer communications gap is not true?

Information systems specialists prefer systems that are oriented toward solving business problems or facilitating organizational tasks.

Enhanced employee goodwill falls under what category of costs and benefits of information systems?

Intangible benefits

Which of the following is the most widely used project management software today?

Microsoft Project

You have been hired to implement an enterprise system that will automate much of the billing and accounting work for a statewide HVAC services company. Which of the following would you prepare to describe how the new system will affect a firm's structure and operations?

Organizational impact analysis

To review a project's tasks and their interrelationships, you would use which of the following?

PERT chart

Which of the following best describes the central method used in a scoring model?

Performing a weighted comparison of the criteria used to evaluate a system

Which of the following best describes the central method used in a portfolio analysis?

Performing an inventory of all of the organization's information systems projects and assets

Which method would you use to develop risk profiles for a firm's information system projects and assets?

Portfolio analysis

Which of the following would not be covered in the Management Strategy section of an information systems plan?

Progress reports

Which of the following statements best describes the effect that project structure has on overall project risk?

Projects with relatively undefined goals are more likely to be subjected to users changing requirements and to run a higher risk of not satisfying project goals.

Which of the following variables in project management is an indicator of how well the project satisfies management objectives?

Quality

Which of the following is not important when designing a new system to fit the organization?

Return on investment

Which of the following project management variables defines what work is or is not included in a project?

Scope

Which method is used to assign weights to various features of a system?

Scoring model

Which of the following best describes the relationship between system implementation and user involvement and management support?

System implementation generally benefits from high levels of user involvement and management support.

An information systems plan contains a statement of corporate goals and specifies how information technology will support the attainment of those goals.

TRUE

The project team is supervised by information systems managers and end-user managers responsible for overseeing specific information systems projects.

TRUE

All of the following are directly correlated with increased risk except:

a large amount of technical expertise from project team and information team staff.

Successful system building requires careful ________ management to minimize organizational resistance.

change

All of the following are intangible benefits of information systems except:

cost reduction

Counterimplementation is best defined as:

deliberate attempts to thwart the implementation of a system.

All of the following are indications of a failed information systems project except:

employees require training to properly use the system.

Formal planning and control tools

enable a project manager to properly document and monitor project plans.

Internal integration tools:

enable a project to have sufficient technical support for projects with challenging and complex technology.

External integration tools:

enable project team members to keep track of external costs of a project.

A benefit of using TCO analysis to evaluate an information technology investment is that it is able to incorporate intangible and "soft" factors such as benefits and complexity costs.

false

Scoring models are most commonly used to make the final decision when selecting different systems.

false

Transaction and clerical systems that displace labor and save space typically produce less tangible benefits than management information systems.

false

A road map indicating the direction of systems development, the rationale, the current systems, new developments to consider, the management strategy, the implementation plan, and the budget is called a(n):

information systems plan

The ________ reviews and approves plans for systems in all divisions.

information systems steering committee

The principal capital budgeting models for evaluating information technology projects are the payback method, the accounting rate of return on investment (ROI), the net present value, and the:

internal rate of return.

In one strategic approach to determining information requirements, managers select a small number of ________ that reflect firm success and profitability.

key performance indicators

Information systems specialists often tend to seek solutions that:

optimize hardware and software efficiency at the expense of ease of use.

The ________ is directly responsible for the individual systems project.

project team

The value of systems from a financial perspective essentially revolves around the issue of:

return on invested capital.

In sociotechnical design

separate sets of technical and social design solutions are developed and compared.

An information system project's scope is directly related to its business requirements.

true

If an intended benefit of an IT project is improved decision making, managers should develop a set of metrics to quantify the value of an improved decision.

true

Intangible benefits may lead to quantifiable gains in the long run.

true

More timely information is an intangible benefit of information systems.

true

On average, private sector projects are underestimated by half in terms of budget and time required to deliver the complete system promised in the system plan.

true

Project management refers to the application of knowledge, skills, tools and techniques to achieve specific targets within specified budget and time constraints.

true

The criteria used in a scoring model are usually the result of lengthy discussions among the decision-making group

true

The data entry screen is an example of a user interface.

true

The difference between cash outflows and cash inflows is used for calculating the financial worth of an investment.

true

The differing background between users and information systems specialists is referred to as the:

user-designer communications gap.

While users are concerned about an information system delivering the information needed for work, designers might be concerned about:

what demands the system will place on the company servers.

On average, private sector IT projects underestimated budget and delivery time of systems by more than ________ percent.

50

Which of the following types of projects have a higher likelihood of failure?

Very large-scale or complex systems projects

Which of the following statements about project risk is not true?

The higher the number of implementation staff on a project, the lower the risk.

As described in the text, which of the following is not a risk factor in information systems projects?

The link between information systems and corporate strategy

Which of the following statements about scoring models is not true?

The most important outcome of a scoring model is the score.