Week 1 - 6 study

Question 1

What is a system?

What are the two outcomes with respect to the goals to be achieved by a system?

Answer 1

A system = a set of two or more inter relating components/subsystems that interact ti achieve a goal.

Outcomes:

1. Goal congruence - when components acting in their own interest contribute toward the overall goal
2. Goal conflict - when components act in their own interest without regard for the overall goal.

Question 2

What is the difference between data and information?

Answer 2

• Information is processed data.
• Data is insufficient for decision making.
• information is output, data is input

Question 3

What is the “value of information”

Answer 3

The value of benefits provided by information over and above the costs of producing it.

Question 4

What are the qualitative characteristics of information per the NZ framework?

Answer 4

understandability, relevance, reliability

and comparability.

Question 5

What are the five major types of “give get” exchanges (transactions)?

Answer 5

1. Revenue cycle
2. Expenditure cycle
3. Production cycle
4. Financing cycle
5. HRM Cycle/Payroll cycle

The general ledger and reporting cycle brings together all five cycles.

Question 6

Accounting is often referred to as the ‘language of business. How does AIS assist accounting?

Answer 6

AIS’s are the intelligence or information providing vehicle of the accounting language.

AIS’s are used to effectively plan, manage and control the business.

Question 7

What are the six components of an AIS

Answer 7

• people using the system
• procedures and instructions
• data
• software
• IT infrastructure
• internal control and security

Question 8

What are the three main business functions that AIS’s enable?

Answer 8

1. Collect and store info about an org
2. transform data into info for decision making purposes
3. provide adequate controls to safeguard assets and data

Question 9

What are the five primary activities of a value chain?

Answer 9

1. inbound logistics
2. Operations (manufacturing)
3. Outbound logistics
4. Marketing and sales
5. Service activities

Question 10

What are the ‘three facets’ of each business activity that should be captured?

Answer 10

1. Events - each activity of interest
2. Resources affected by each activity
3. People who participate in each activity

Question 11

What is a ‘turnaround document’

Answer 11

A document that is sent from an organisation to the customer. The same document is then returned to the organisation (e.g. tear off strip on telephone bill)

Question 12

Contrast the general and subsidiary ledger.

Answer 12

General ledger = summary level data for A, L, OE, revenue and expense control accounts (i..e the subtotal)

Subsidiary ledger = detailed data for each g/l account that has individual sub-accounts

Question 13

Explain the process through which data is stored (from entity to files)

AKA the different levels of the data hierarchy.

Answer 13

1. An entity is a person, place or thing
2. Attributes are facts about the entity
3. Fields are where attributes are stored
4. Records are a group of related attributes about an entity
5. A file is a group of related records
6. A database is a related group of files

Question 14

What are the different data storage file types?

Answer 14

Transaction files - non permanent files that contains records from a specific period of time

Master files - permanent files that are updated by transactions files

Database - a set of interrelated files

Question 15

What is the definition of a database

Answer 15

A set of interrelated, centrally co-ordinated files.

Question 16

What are the four main data processing activities. “CRUD”

Answer 16

Create new data records
Read, retrieve or view existing records
Update existing stored data records
Delete data or records

Question 17

What are the characteristics of an ERP system?

Answer 17

• ERP integrates an orgs info into one overall AIS
• modules are integrated by utilising a centralized database across business processes to share info and co-ordinate activities
• ERP overcomes the issue of having numerous systems and the problems/inefficiencies associated .
• Data is captured once
• A standardized procedure for accessing information

Question 18

What are some negatives of an ERP system?

Answer 18

• can be costly
• time consuming to implement
• can be disruptive
• resistance to change
• training needs to use the new system

Question 19

What are the 4 steps of the data processing?

Answer 19

• Data input
• Data processing
• Data storage
• Information Output

Question 20

What is “documentation” in the context of AIS’s?

Answer 20

A set of documents and models used to explain how an AIS works. (including the inputs, processes, storage, output and controls.)

Examples include narratives, data flow models and flowcharts.

Question 21

What are the four basic elements of a data flow diagram (DFD)

Answer 21

Entity, data flow, data store and process.

Question 22

What is an “entity” in the context of a data flow diagram or other AIS documentation model?

Answer 22

Entity = a source or destination of data. usually a physical being or object e.g. customer, bank, manager etc.

Question 23

What is a ‘process’ in the context of a data flow diagram or other AIS documentation model?

Answer 23

A process represents a transformation of data.

Question 24

What is a ‘data store’ in the context of a data flow diagram or other AIS documentation model?

Answer 24

A data store represents data at rest. i.e. the repository of data (note the physical storage on a server/hard drive is not shown)

Question 25

What are the three different levels of DFD's?

Answer 25

1. Context - highest 'summary 'level' that shows inputs and outputs only 2. Level-0 - shows all major activities of a system. processes are labelled 1.0, 2.0 etc 3. Level-1 - shows one major activity divided into sub-activities. processes are labelled 1.1, 1.2 etc

Question 26

How is a flowchart used for documentation of an AIS?

Answer 26

Flowcharts use symbols to logically depict transaction processing and the flow of data through a system. Such a pictorial representation is easier to understand and explain.

Question 27

What are the three main types of flowcharts that are used for documentation of AIS's?

Answer 27

Document - illustrates the flow of docs through an org. System - represents system inputs, processes and outputs Program - respresents the logical sequence of computer program logic

Question 28

Contrast the file and database approach systems for storing/accessing data?

Answer 28

File approach - individual silos of information (master files) are developed that are completely unconnected Database approach - data is an organisational resource that is used by and managed for an entire organisation, not just an originating department.

Question 29

What is a data warehouse?

Answer 29

A warehouse that contains both detailed and summarized data for a number of years. A data warehouse is updated periodically as opposed to in real time.

Question 30

What is business intelligence (BI). What are the two types?

Answer 30

the use of data warehouses for strategic decision making. - online analytical processing - data mining

Question 31

What are some advantages of using database systems (as opposed to a file based approach)

Answer 31

- data is integrated - data is more easily shared and accessible by users - reduction of data redundancy and inconsistency (i.e. prevents multiple versions of the same data being created) - data is separate from the programs that access it . changes can be made without changing the programs.

Question 32

What are the two separate 'views' of data ?

Answer 32

- physical view i.e. how and where data is physically arranged and stored in the computer system. - logical view i.e. how people conceptually organise and understand data.

Question 33

What are 3 DBMS languages?

Answer 33

Data definition Language (DDL)- the structure of the database Data manipulation language (DML) - changes the content in the database Data Query Language (DQL) - enables the retrieval, sorting and display of data.

Question 34

What is a schema? What are the three different levels of schema?

Answer 34

Schema - refers to the organization of data as a blueprint of how a database is constructed. Different levels: - Conceptual level - organisation wide view - External level - individual users view (sub schemas) - Internal level - describes how data is stored and accessed.

Question 35

What is a relational database?

Answer 35

A relational database represents the conceptual and external level schemas as if data was stored in tables. Each row contains and instance of an entity and each column contains an attribute of an entity.

Question 36

What are the three types of attributes that a record may have?

Answer 36

1. A primary key - used to uniquely identify a specific record in a table 2. A foreign key - an attribute in one table that is a primary key in another table (used to link two tables) 3. Non key attributes - store other important information

Question 37

What are the three 'anomalies' that can occur when there is a database design error? How can these errors be addressed?

Answer 37

1, Update anomaly - where changes to data are not correctly recorded (due to multiple records) 2. Insert anomaly - where records are unable to be added to the database 3. Delete anomaly - where removing a record also removes unintended data from the database. These errors can be addressed by utilising a relational database whereby data is stored in seperate database tables.

Question 38

What are the four design requirements for relational databases?

Answer 38

1. Every column must be single valued 2. primary keys must contain data 3. foreign keys must agree with the primary key in another table 4. All non-key attributes must identify a characteristic of the table identified by the primary key.

Question 39

Which DBMS languages should have limited access (i.e. only employees with administration and programming responsibilities)?

Answer 39

DML and DDL

Question 40

What is the five step database design process?

Answer 40

1. Systems analysis 2. Conceptual design 3. Physical design 4. Implementation and conversion 5. Operations and maintenance

Question 41

What does an entity relationship diagram do?

Answer 41

ER diagrams graphically represent a database schema i.e. the relationships between entities

Question 42

How is the REA data model used for designing AIS's?

Answer 42

provides guidance for databases by designing which entities should be included by prescribing how to structure relationships among entities in the database

Question 43

What are the three categories of entity in an REA diagram?

Answer 43

1. Resources - things that have economic value 2. Events - business activities 3. Agents - people and organisations that [participate in events

Question 44

What are the 3 'rules' for REA diagrams?

Answer 44

1. Each event must be linked to at least one resource that it is affects 2. Each event is linked to at least one other event (i.e. a give and a get relationship) 3. Each event is linked to at least two participating agents

Question 45

What are the three steps to develop a REA diagram?

Answer 45

1. Identify relevant events for which mgmt want to collect information. 2. Identify resources affected 3. Determine the cardinalities of each relationship

Question 46

What is a cardinality? What are the different types?

Answer 46

A cardinality describes the relationship between entities. i.e. how many instances of one entity can be linked to a specific instance of another entity. The minimum can be 0 or 1 and the maximum can be 1 or many. Note: the types of relationships are based on maximum cardinality. - One-to-one (1:1) - i.e an event must relate to one and only one other event. - One-to-many (1:N) - one event may relate to many other events - Many-to-many (M:N) - many events may relate to a number of different events

Question 47

What are some key things to consider when looking at step 1 of developing an REA diagram? (i.e. Identifying relevant events for which mgmt want to collect information)

Answer 47

- only activities that involve the acquisition of new data need to be included in the model - Accounts receivable is not a separate event (i.e. data collection is not a separate event) - data entry events are also not included as they are not primary value adding activities. - commitment events that do not involve give-get events are not relevant events - transfers of paper (e.g. billing clients) are also not included.

Question 48

What are three ways of obtaining an AIS?

Answer 48

1. Purchase the software 2. Develop software in house 3. Hire an external company to develop and maintain software

Question 49

What are the three different types of 'purchased software'?

Answer 49

1. Off the shelf (OTS) a.k.a canned software 2. Turnkey systems (hardware and software sold as a package) 3. Application service provided (ASP) - software is provided via the internet

Question 50

What is 'in house system development'? What is the main benefit of this option when obtaining an AIS?

Answer 50

Where custom software is created in house or by an outside company hired to write software (controlled by the company). Main benefit = can provide a significant competitive advantage

Question 51

What is end user computing (EUC) and how is this method used to obtain an AIS?

Answer 51

EUC = the hands on development, use and control of computer-based IS by USERS. It is the use of IT to meet their info needs rather than systems professionals. Such systems can BETTER meet user needs but lead to development errors due to users little experience in systems development.

Question 52

What is outsourcing in the context of system development? What are the different types of outsourcing?

Answer 52

hiring of an outside company to handle parts of an organisations data processing activities. Options: - Mainframe outsourcing - everything is outsourced including hardware and employees. - Client server / PC outsourcing agreement - where a service, function or segment of business is outsourced.

Question 53

What are some of the advantages and disadvantages of outsourcing?

Answer 53

Advantages: - focus on core competencies - improve cash position through asset utilization - access to greater expertise and technology Disadvantages - Inflexible (usually long term contracts) - loss of control - increased risk

Question 54

What are the three methods of developing an AIS?

Answer 54

1. Business process management (BPM) - through the continuous improvement and optimization of a business processes. 2. Prototyping - through the use of a simplififed working model. 3. Computer aided software engineering (CASE) tools - software that helps to develop software from start to finish,

Question 55

What is the key difference between ERP and BPM systems?

Answer 55

While both support corporate goals, ERP systems are more DATA CENTERED while BPMS is more PROCESS CENTERED.

Question 56

The Smith David, McCarthy and Somner framework can be used to categorise and compare different types of software applications. Identify the different classifications of software under this framework?

Answer 56

single entry system inwardly organised system outwardly organised system

Question 57

Contrast the single entry system, inwardly organised system and the outwardly organised system in the context of software classification?

Answer 57

Single entry systems only focus on recording FINANCIAL transactions and obligations as they occur while inwardly organised organisations record and monitor ALL exchanges (financial and non-financial) that occur within an organisation. Outwardly organised organisations not only focus on internal activities but it also captures financial and non-financial information from EXTERNAL suppliers and customers that the organisation deals with as well (CRM and SCM)

Question 58

What classification is the book keeping or A = L + OE system?

Answer 58

inwardly organised system It is based on the classic double entry accounting equation and is used to streamline the financial functions of the organisation ONLY i.e. it has little or no consideration of non-financial and external information

Question 59

What are some risks of using cloud computing? (refer to assignment)

Answer 59

The risks of cloud computing include: - the potential lack of control - security issues - the risk of potential breaches of confidentiality/privacy - compliance issues i.e. where records are stored.