MIS Chapter 2 Quiz
Which of the following is NOT one of the four definitions the textbook uses to define the word "information"?
*A. Information and data are actually the same thing.* B. Information is data processed by summing, ordering, averaging, grouping, comparing, or other similar operations. C. Information is knowledge derived from data. D. Information is data presented in a meaningful context. E. Information is a difference that makes a difference.
According to the BPMN standard, the next action to perform in an activity is symbolized by ________.
*A. a solid line with an arrow head indicating the direction of the next step.* B.a rectangle C. labeled dashed lines D. a rectangle with a boxed plus sign inside of it E. a circle with a narrow border
For the purpose of documenting a business process, the particular medium in which the data is stored is ___________.
*A. unimportant* B. computer-based C. digital. D. electronic E.cloud based.
Information exists under which of the following conditions?
*A.Information exists only in the mind of a human observer.* B.Information exists if it is a difference that makes a difference. C.It is information as long as it is derived from data. D.Information exists if it is data processed by summing, ordering, averaging, grouping, comparing, or other similar operations. E.Information exists if it is data presented in a meaningful context.
Your assistant just informed you that one of the leading costs in the department is associated with dealing with problematic customers. You decide to start negotiating with those problematic vendors in order to get compensated for the costs incurred from dealing with them. In what specific way does this action improve your departmental process?
*A.It helps to improve process effectiveness.* B.It helps to improve process efficiency. C.Your departmental process is improved because you won't have to develop an automated system to deal with problematic vendors. D.It limits the linkages among activities in the process, which makes it much more efficient. E.It helps you to realize a new area of the department that can be automated.
Which of the following is the reason for the importance of you, as a human, in an information system?
*A.The human is the most important part of an information system because the quality of human thinking affects one's ability to conceive information from data and thereby add value to the system.* B.Information is data processed by summing, ordering, averaging, grouping, comparing, or other similar operations designed and set in place by a human. C.A human is the only one who can decide if the information provided is a difference that makes a difference. D.Information is data presented to a human in a meaningful context. E. Information is knowledge derived from data and needs to be observed to be appreciated.
Data should be ______ to the context and to the subject?
*A.relevant* B.against C.communicated D.considerate E.sent
Which of the following statements is NOT true about a repository?
A repository must be a collection of digital files stored on a computer that is maintained within the business process.
At a recent meeting, you learn from an HR report that your department has much higher than normal turnover in employees who work in the data entry area. Their exit interviews reveal that their major complaint is that the computers they are asked to use don't have Internet access and are "old". The VP in charge of your department tells you to get new computers for the employees and to connect them to the Internet. What would be a professional and practical response for you to make to the VP?
A. "Yes, I will get the IT guys in there right away to get new computers with Internet access installed." B. "I suspect that HR is trying to cover their backs by blaming the high turnover rate on our infrastructure when in reality the problem has to do with their hiring practices. We need to make sure HR is hiring the right kind of people." C. "The report from HR must be incorrect because if there was a big problem with high turnover, I would certainly know about it." *D. "Give me a week to investigate. First, I will speak with the workers who have been with us for a year or two to see if they can tell me why the others are leaving after only a month or two. Then, let me talk with the security guys in IT because connecting the data-entry computers to the Internet might be a serious problem for them. I will get back to you for your advice."* E. "In general, data-entry computers simply do not need to be state-of-the-art machines. What some people might refer to as 'old' computers will work just fine for data entry. It is quite possible that the workers need access to Internet-connected computers while they are on break. After all, work computers are for getting work done, not browsing the Web."
Which of the following is the correct definition of the term business process?
A. A business process is an abstraction that is typically shown in graphical form using BPPM notations. *B. A business process is a network of activities for accomplishing a business function.* C. A business process is a network of events that accomplishes a business strategy. D. A business process is a network of events that accomplishes a business function. E. A business process is a network of activities for accomplishing a business strategy.
Which component of the five-component model for information systems is the most important and why?
A. Hardware is the most difficult to replace of the five components in the information systems model because hardware is expensive and must be kept secure from thieves and vandals. B. Procedures are the most important part of an information system because without procedures, the process would never run properly. C.Software is the most important component of an information system because if the software is not capable of doing the processing that needs to be done or if it does the processing incorrectly, then the information is worthless. *D.People are the most important component in an information system because it is only a human who can conceive information from data.* E. Data is the most important component of an information system because without the data acting as the bridge, the system would simply become disconnected.
Your department manages a database for buyers in the company to use as a resource of information about suppliers. Some of the fields in the database are "Vendor Reputation with Us," "Buyer Rating of Vendor," "Customer Rating of Vendor Product," "Sales History of Vendor Product," and "Price Competitiveness of Vendor." You presently allow buyers to access just the "Buyer Rating of Vendor," where buyers can see their own reports and add new reports, and the "Customer Rating of Vendor Product" and "Price Competitiveness of Vendor" fields in their queries. How might you make your process more effective and enhance process quality?
A. Stop the buyers from accessing the database. It is essentially a waste of time for them to do that. Because they don't have access to the entire database, they cannot make informed decisions. B. Allow the buyers to also see the "Sales History of Vendor Product" field. C. Stop the buyers from accessing the "Buyer Rating of Vendor" field. D. Allow the buyers to include all of the fields in their queries. *E.Allow the buyers to also include the "Vendor Reputation with Us" field in their queries so that they can find out how other buyers have rated the vendor.*
Which of the following is an example of data?
A. There is nothing new to know about anything. *B. Last year I ate 23 pounds of sugar.* C. Last year, I ate an average of 1/12 of a pound of sugar per day. D. If we know that customers bought 30 percent of the ice cream flavors sold today, then there must have been only five flavors sold. E. Seven people bought three different types of ice cream today, and there are 15 different kinds of ice cream for sale. That means that only about 30 percent of the ice cream flavors sold today.
According to the BPMN standard, the start of a business process is symbolized by ________.
A. a circle with a thick border B. a rectangle with a boxed plus sign inside of it C. labeled dashed lines D. a rectangle *E. a circle with a narrow border*
At a recent meeting, you learn that your buyers are each keeping records of their vendor relationships in files in their desks. To access past records for a particular vendor, the buyers manually search through their desks to find the records. You decide that the best thing to do is to ________.
A. automate the system by having the IT department work with you and the people in your department to provide an analysis system and a database to put the records into so that if the buyers want some information they could just query the database. B. automate the system by photocopying each document and placing the images in a photo database that the buyers can search C. make the buyers all put their papers and other records in the same file cabinet in a locked room so that the records are at least secure and not likely to get lost D. turn the problem completely over to the technical personnel in the IT department so that they can come up with an elegant solution E. outsource the record-keeping for the entire department
Using BPMN, business processes are typically organized into what is called ________.
A. data flow B. actors C. roles D. activities *E. swimlane format*
We do not write the name of a person at the top of a swim lane; instead, we write the name of the role. We do this because ________.
A. real people never actually assume the roles graphically depicted in the BPMN diagram *B.the role may be filled by many people* C.the BPMN system automatically fills the names in with names selected from the pool of names provided by the database D.the business process diagram should not disclose any personal information E.there are predetermined names that are industry standards that are used for the roles and those are never the names of regular people
The automation of a process activity consists of moving work from ________.
A. the analysis of costs and margins to the analysis of customer feedback B. computers that perform work by following instructions to people who perform work by following instructions C. marketing and sales to operations D. manufacturing to marketing and sales *E. the right side of the five-component information system model to the left side.*
One problem with automating processes in order to reduce the amount of work being done by humans is that ________.
A. the more work the computers do, the less work there is for the humans to do so they will end up being laid off and living on unemployment. *B. the cost of developing the information system components to accomplish the automation may actually exceed the cost of having people continue to do the work.* C. information systems tend to increase process quality only by improving process efficiency through automation and there is a limit to how much that can be done D. product quality typically declines because people are more careful about how well things are made than machines are E. the business professional may get too involved in the development of the information system and cause the technical people to lose sight of their ultimate objective
Your assistant comes to your office and says, "I just set the program up, and the data will be done processing in a few minutes. What do you want me to do with it?" What would be a sensible response from you?
A. "Go ahead and look it over after it is done. If it looks good to you, then put the results on the company drive, and I will show it in a meeting that starts in about 30 minutes." B. "Go ahead and put the results on the company drive, and I will show it in a meeting that starts in about 30 minutes." C. "Be sure to process the data using all four of the definitions of information so that we will have covered all of the bases in terms of points of view regarding what information is." *D. "Send me a copy of the results as soon as it is ready so that I can look it over before my big meeting in 30 minutes."* E."Once it is ready, go ahead and put the results on the company drive and send everyone who will be at the meeting a message to go look at the information so they will be ready when I show them when the meeting starts in 30 minutes."
Which of the following is NOT one of the characteristics of quality information?
A.Quality information must be relevant. B.Quality data must be timely. C.Quality information must be worth its cost. D.Quality information must be accurate. *E.Good information will be absolutely complete and will reflect all possible versions of analysis so that no stone is left unturned.*
When looking at BPMN abstraction, you will almost certainly not see any costs although they must be there. So, where are the costs?
A.The costs are shown on a different diagram, called a BPMN concretion, where solid facts are displayed. *B.Costs are associated with things that are shown on the BPMN abstraction, including such things as the costs of certain types of transactions, the costs of employee time, the costs of infrastructure, and so on. This is the correct answer.* C.Costs are shown in a table of standardized costs associated with each type of activity. Those costs are part of the BPMN notation system and help designers to calculate the immediate costs of processes so that they can easily and quickly identify which ones will have the greatest ratio of effectiveness and efficiency. Your answer is not correct. D.There are no costs associated with the activities in the BPMN abstraction, so none are shown. E.The accounting department would keep track of the costs, and they would show costs at the left of the abstraction and costs at the right of the abstraction. None actually occur between the left and the right, but they are shown in the difference between the two.
What is the difference between process effectiveness and process efficiency?
A.There really is no difference between process effectiveness and process efficiency. They both relate to the same thing. B.Process effectiveness is a measure of how well the process enables the organization to accomplish its strategy. Process efficiency is a measure of how much waste a process generates while running in its normal mode. C.Process efficiency is a measure of how easily a process can be implemented in organizational standards. Process effectiveness is a measure of how well the process performs in terms of its cost versus its value. *D.Process effectiveness is a measure of how well the process enables the organization to accomplish its strategy. Process efficiency is a measure of the ratio of the process's benefits to its costs.* E.Process efficiency is a measure of how well the process accomplishes the competitive strategies of the organization. Process effectiveness is a measure of how well the process performs in terms of its cost versus its value.
With regard to the five-component model for information systems, the actors and the instructions are connected by ________.
a bridge that is represented by data
According to the BPMN standard, the end of a business process is symbolized by ________.
a circle with a thick border