Chapter 7

A crash course is an intensive class designed to prepare those with no previous experience to take and pass a certification exam.

False

Which of these categories of workers is expected to increase at about the same rate as employment in the US economy over the next decade?

Computer Support Specialists

A support operation that is organized as a cost center has both an income and an expense budget.

False

The Computer Technology Industry Association (CompTIA) A+ exam is an example of ____.

a vendor neutral exam

During an interview for a help desk position, directed questions are often used to find out whether an applicant has specific educational or work experience.

True

Employment in the category of Computer Support Specialists is expected to increase at about an average rate compared with other occupational categories in the US during the next decade.

True

One purpose of user support staff training is to help agents meet the performance objectives of their position.

True

Performance measures for a help desk operation may be reported as statistics, but are often reported as a visual graphic, such as a column chart.

True

A paper-and-pencil or verbal exercise that measures a job applicant's technical understanding and problem-solving ability is a(n) ____.

knowledge and skills test

"Act with integrity and honesty in dealing with the public, end users, coworkers, management and competitors", would likely be covered in:

A professional code of ethical behavior

Which of these levels of user support is likely to be the most responsive to a user's needs?

Premium support

Which of these testing methods is often used in industry certification exams?

Computer adaptive test

Which of these knowledge, skills, and abilities would a help desk manager probably not seek in an applicant for a help desk position?

Programming skills

Which of these is not a common method used to conduct a user satisfaction survey?

Face-to-face interview

A computer adaptive test format asks each test taker the same set of questions to measure knowledge, skills and abilities.

False

A professional association is a labor union that represents the interests of a group of agents who work for an organization.

False

A user support mission statement usually states how an organization's business transactions will be processed on a corporate computer system.

False

Although end users benefit from training, help desk staff are generally self-taught and usually do not benefit from an ongoing training program.

False

An Erlang unit is a measure of the number of telephone calls received where a user hung up before a help desk agent was able to answer the call.

False

Certification of knowledge, skills and abilities in technology is now a job requirement for virtually any help desk position.

False

Formal education courses are not an example of user support certification.

False

Industry-wide criteria are often used to evaluate the performance of a support worker.

False

It is illegal to test the stress tolerance of an applicant for an entry-level help desk position.

False

One of the benefits of help desk certification is an automatic increase to step 2 in starting pay for an entry-level agent.

False

Organizations that treat user support as a profit center may have more difficulty justifying the cost of support services.

False

Performance statistics collected and analyzed for a support group are not useful to evaluate individual support employees.

False

Since there are few agreed on standards in the user support industry, there are currently no certifications available for help desk agents.

False

Since there are few agreed-on standards in the computer industry, it is very difficult to agree on a code of ethics for IT professionals.

False

Since user support is a new field, there are not yet any professional associations for user support professionals.

False

The dollar amounts in support budgets vary little from one help desk operation to another; these amounts are based on industry standards.

False

Unethical activities in the computer industry are those that are illegal according to federal, state and local laws.

False

Unlike a question in a knowledge and skills test, there is only one correct answer to a scenario question in a job interview.

False

User support professionals generally depend on their employers for 100% of their training and professional development needs.

False

Wait time is the average time a help desk agent is idle before an incident arrives that needs attention.

False

Which of these aspects of help desk operation would not normally be covered in a user support mission statement?

Fees for help desk services

A knowledge and skills test is a tool support managers use when selecting new employees; it measures an applicant's understanding and problem-solving ability.

True

A paper CNE is someone who has passed the CNE certification exam, but has little practical, hands-on experience with computer networks.

True

A support budget is a financial plan that translated the goals in a mission statement into a strategy to meet the goals.

True

A support operation that is organized as a profit center has both an income and an expense budget.

True

A user satisfaction survey is a questionnaire that measures how satisfied users are with the support services they receive.

True

Employment of Network and Computer System Administrators is expected to increase faster than Computer Support Specialists in the US during the next decade.

True

Industry-standard certification exams are vendor-neutral.

True

Support managers often use recordings of monitored support calls to help workers identify areas where performance improvement is needed

True

The employee selection process for a help desk position can be described as an attempt to find applicants with the knowledge, skills, and abilities that are the closest match with the requirements of a position.

True

The example user support mission statement in this chapter focuses primarily on operational efficiency and user productivity.

True

User support expense budgets are often divided into two large categories: personnel and facilities.

True

User support managers often use which of these strategies to determine how many staff members to hire to handle the volume of support incidents received?

Use an Erlang calculation to estimate staffing needs

One of the first vendor-specific certification programs was offered by ____.

Novell

Which of the following is not a primary benefit of IT industry certification?

ability to identify a worker whose performance has fallen below industry standards

Which of these is an important topic in a help desk staff training program?

all of these

A measure of the number of support incidents that can be handled in a given time period, often used in staffing the help desk group, is ____.

an Erlang unit

Which of these can be tested for industry certification?

any of these

Which of the following kinds of questions is designed to determine whether a help desk job applicant has specific educational and work experience required for a position?

directed question

A vendor-specific certification is ____.

none of these

CBT or WBT for those preparing for certification exams are ____ courses.

online tutorial

Objective measures of the user support or help desk operation are called ____.

performance statistics

A computer adaptive test may be able to determine a test taker's proficiency level by asking as few as ____ questions.

15

Which of the following is not a common type of certification used in the information technology field?

Verification of prior employment during a job interview