Chapter 7
A crash course is an intensive class designed to prepare those with no previous experience to take and pass a certification exam. True False
Selected Answer: False
A professional association is a labor union that represents the interests of a group of agents who work for an organization. True False
Selected Answer: False
A support operation that is organized as a cost center has both an income and an expense budget. True False1
Selected Answer: False
A user support mission statement usually states how an organization's business transactions will be processed on a corporate computer system. True False
Selected Answer: False
Although end users benefit from training, help desk staff are generally self-taught and usually do not benefit from an ongoing training program. True False
Selected Answer: 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. True False
Selected Answer: False
During an interview for a help desk position, an illegal question is one that does not give an applicant sufficient time to answer fully. True False
Selected Answer: False
During an interview for a help desk position, directed questions are open-ended and give an applicant an opportunity to talk in general terms compared with non- directed questions. True False
Selected Answer: False
Entry-level help desk staff are usually not concerned with performance measures and the justification of help desk services; performance and justification are primarily management responsibilities. True False
Selected Answer: False
Formal education courses are not an example of user support certification. True False
Selected Answer: False
Industry-wide criteria are often used to evaluate the performance of a support worker. True False
Selected Answer: False
It is illegal to test the stress tolerance of an applicant for an entry-level help desk position. True False
Selected Answer: False
Most open help desk and user support positions are advertised in the newspaper. True False
Selected Answer: False
Organizations that treat user support as a profit center may have more difficulty justifying the cost of support services. True False
Selected Answer: False
Since there are few agreed on standards in the user support industry, there are currently no certifications available for help desk agents. True False
Selected Answer: 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. True False
Selected Answer: False
Since user support is a new field, there are not yet any professional associations for user support professionals. True False
Selected Answer: False
The dollar amounts in support budgets vary little from one help desk operation to another; these amounts are based on industry standards. True False
Selected Answer: False
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 False
Selected Answer: False
Unethical activities in the computer industry are those that are illegal according to federal, state and local laws. True False
Selected Answer: False
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 False
Selected Answer: True
A paper CNE is someone who has passed the CNE certification exam, but has little practical, hands-on experience with computer networks. True False
Selected Answer: True
A support budget is a financial plan that translated the goals in a mission statement into a strategy to meet the goals. True False
Selected Answer: True
A support operation that is organized as a profit center has both an income and an expense budget. True False
Selected Answer: True
A user satisfaction survey is a questionnaire that measures how satisfied users are with the support services they receive. True False
Selected Answer: True
Automated call distributors (ACDs) often collect data to measure help desk and agent performance. True False
Selected Answer: True
Certification of knowledge, skills and abilities in technology is now a job requirement for virtually any help desk position. True False
Selected Answer: True
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 False
Selected Answer: True
In smaller organizations, support specialists may perform some user support management tasks, such as project leader, supervisor, or user support manager. True False
Selected Answer: True
Industry-standard certification exams are vendor-neutral. True False
Selected Answer: True
One purpose of user support staff training is to help agents meet the performance objectives of their position. True False
Selected Answer: True
Orientations for new help desk agents often cover a support organization's policies and procedures, such as how to handle a client who wants a refund for a product. True False
Selected Answer: 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 False
Selected Answer: True
The criteria used to evaluate the performance of a support employee should be related to the support mission statement and to the employee's professional growth objectives. True False
Selected Answer: True
The example user support mission statement in this chapter focuses primarily on operational efficiency and user productivity. True False
Selected Answer: True
The percent of incidents where a user hangs up or gave up before a support agent responded is called the abandonment rate. True False
Selected Answer: True
User support managers monitor several aspects of their support operation, including the percentage of calls that were abandoned by the user. True False
Selected Answer: True
Vendor certification tries to measure the knowledge, skills and ability to use or support a specialized product rather than a generic category of products. True False
Selected Answer: True
While a single performance measure may be useful, trends in performance measures over time are a more useful indicator of help desk performance. True False
Selected Answer: True
Which of these proficiencies (KSAs) would a user support manager usually not specify in a position description for a user support position? a. Marketing ability b. Communication and interpersonal skills c. Hardware, operating systems, and application software experience d. Internet and web skills
Selected Answer: a. Marketing ability
Which of these ways of organizing a support center has both an expense budget and an income budget? a. Profit center b. Expense center c. Cost center d. Income center
Selected Answer: a. Profit center
A help desk manager would probably emphasize which of these skills in a job search for an advanced support position? a. Technical knowledge and skills b. Telephone skills c. Ability to work on a project team d. Communication and listening skills
Selected Answer: a. Technical knowledge and skills
Which of the following is not a common type of certification used in the information technology field? a. Verification of prior employment during a job interview b. Industry-standard skills in a specific field c. Formal education that results in a degree d. Vendor-specific product knowledge
Selected Answer: a. Verification of prior employment during a job interview
A computer adaptive test may be able to determine a test taker's proficiency level by asking as few as ____ questions. a. 5 b. 15 c. 64 d. 100
Selected Answer: b. 15
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? a. Hire fewer staff than needed to reduce support costs b. Use an Erlang calculation to estimate staffing needs c. Use industry-standard staffing formulas for help desks d. Hire more staff than needed to make sure all incidents are handled quickly
Selected Answer: b. Use an Erlang calculation to estimate staffing needs
The primary purpose of help desk performance statistics is to ____. a. respond to technology auditors' information requirements b. justify the value and expense of support services c. respond to complaints from angry users d. report to company stockholders
Selected Answer: b. justify the value and expense of support services
Which of these testing methods is often used in industry certification exams? a. Traditional, fixed-length test b. Paper-and-pencil test c. Computer adaptive test d. SAT exam format
Selected Answer: c. Computer adaptive test
Which of these aspects of help desk operation would not normally be covered in a user support mission statement? a. Operational efficiency of users b. Effectiveness of help desk services c. Fees for help desk services d. Customer satisfaction
Selected Answer: c. Fees for help desk services
One of the first vendor-specific certification programs was offered by ____. a. Intel b. Microsoft c. Novell d. Cisco
Selected Answer: c. Novell
The Computer Technology Industry Association (CompTIA) A+ exam is an example of ____. a. a vendor-specific exam b. a help desk agent exam c. a vendor neutral exam d. a vendor-sponsored exam
Selected Answer: c. a vendor neutral exam
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 ____. a. the response rate b. the contact rate c. an Erlang unit d. the abandonment rate
Selected Answer: c. an Erlang unit
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? a. behavioral question b. non-directed question c. directed question d. scenario question
Selected Answer: c. directed question
A paper-and-pencil or verbal exercise that measures a job applicant's technical understanding and problem-solving ability is a(n) ____. a. IQ test b. personality test c. knowledge and skills test d. scenario test
Selected Answer: c. knowledge and skills test
The average time it takes a help desk to respond to incidents is ____. a. response rate b. abandonment rate c. wait time d. call time
Selected Answer: c. wait time
"Act with integrity and honesty in dealing with the public, end users, coworkers, management and competitors", would likely be covered in: a. The IT Professional's Handbook b. User support industry best practices c. State and federal laws d. A professional code of ethical behavior
Selected Answer: d. A professional code of ethical behavior
Which of the following levels of support services likely costs the most to provide to users? a. Minimum level services b. Free level services c. Standard fee-for-service level d. Premium level services
Selected Answer: d. Premium level services
Which of these can be tested for industry certification? a. help desk and support agents b. user support groups c. IT professionals d. any of these
Selected Answer: d. any of these
A vendor-specific certification is ____. a. vendor neutral b. required for employment c. an industry-wide exam d. none of these
Selected Answer: d. none of these
Objective measures of the user support or help desk operation are called ____. a. adaptive tests b. Erlang measures c. abandonment rate d. performance statistics
Selected Answer: d. performance statistics
