pic 3 - Data and Knowledge Management

Question 1

Difficulties of managing data

Answer 1

1. Amount of data is increasing exponentially.
2. Data is scattered throughout organizations.
3. Data is generated from multiple sources.
4. New sources of data are constantly being developed. Data becomes let current over time.
5. Data rot
6. Data security, quality, and integrity are critical, yet they are easily jeopardized.
7. Federal gov. regulations require companies to account for how information is being managed within their organizations. Companies are downing in data, much of which is unstructured.
8. Big data

Question 2

Data silo

Answer 2

A collection of data held by one group that is not easily accessible by other groups. They hinder the process of gaining actionable insight from organizational data, create barriers to an overall view of the enterprise and its data.

Question 3

Data streams

Answer 3

Data that are continuously generated by point-of-sale systems, clickstream data, social media, and sensors.

Question 4

Data rot

Answer 4

Refers primarily to problems with the media on which the data are stored.
- Temperature, humidity, and exposure to light can cause physical problems with storage media and make it difficult to access data.
- Another aspect is finding the machines needed to access the data.

Question 5

Data governance

Answer 5

An approach to managing information across an entire organization.
- Involves a formal set of business processes and policies that are designed to ensure that data are handled in a certain, well-defined fashion.
- Objective is to make info available, transparent, and useful for the people who are authorized to access it, from the moment it enters an organization until it become outdated and is deleted.

Question 6

Master data management

Answer 6

A process that spans all of an organization’s business processes and applications.
- Strategy for implementing data governance.
- Provides companies the ability to store, maintain, exchange, and synchronize a consistent, accurate, and timely “single version of the truth” for the company’s master data.

Question 7

Master data

Answer 7

A set of core data (e.g., customer, product, employee, vendor, geographic location) that span the enterprise’s information systems.

Question 8

Transactional data

Answer 8

Data generated and captured by operational systems that describe the business’s activities, or transactions.

Question 9

Data file

Answer 9

A collection of logically related records.

Question 10

Database systems minimize the following problems:

Answer 10

• Data redundancy – same data stored in multiple locations.
• Data isolation – applications cannot access data associated with other applications.
• Data inconsistency – various copies of the data do not agree.

Question 11

Database systems also maximize the following benefits:

Answer 11

• Data security – Since data is put in once place in databases, there is risk of losing a lot of data at once. Databases must have extremely high security measures in place to minimize mistakes and deter attacks.
• Data integrity – Data meet certain constraints (E.g., there are no letter in a SIN).
• Data independence – Applications and data are independent of one another; that is, applications and data are not linked to each other, so all applications are able to access the same data.

Question 12

A bit (binary digit)

Answer 12

the smallest unit of data a computer can process. Binary means it can only consist of a 0 or 1.

Question 13

A byte

Answer 13

a group of 8 bits that represent a single character. Can be a letter, number, or symbol.

Question 14

Field

Answer 14

a characteristic of interest that describes an entity. It is a logical grouping of characters into a word, a small group of words, or an identification number.

Question 15

Record

Answer 15

a logical grouping of related fields.

Question 16

Table

Answer 16

a logical grouping of related records. AKA a data file.

Question 17

Database

Answer 17

a logical grouping of related files.

Question 18

Database management system (DBMS)

Answer 18

A set of programs that provide users with tools to create and manage a database.
- Managing a database refers to the processes of adding, deleting, accessing, modifying, and analyzing data that are stored in a database.

Question 19

Relational database model

Answer 19

Data model based on the simple concept of tables in order to capitalize on characteristics of rows and columns of data.

Question 20

Data model

Answer 20

A diagram that represents entities in the database and their relationships

Question 21

Entity

Answer 21

A person, a place, a things, or an event about which an organization maintain information.
- A record generally describes an entity.

Question 22

Instance

Answer 22

Each row in a relational table, which is specific, unique representation of the entity.

Question 23

Attribute

Answer 23

Each characteristic or quality of a particular entity.

Question 24

Primary key

Answer 24

A field (or attribute) of a record that uniquely identifies that record so that it can be retrieved, updated, and sorted (e.g., student number)

Question 25

Secondary key

Answer 25

A field that has some identifying information, but typically does not uniquely identify a record with complete accuracy (e.g., Student’s major if a user wanted to identify all of the students majoring in a particular field of study).

Question 26

Foreign key

Answer 26

A field (or a group of fields) in one table that uniquely identifies a row of another table.
- Used to establish and enforce a link between two tables.

Question 27

Structured data

Answer 27

highly organized data in fixed fields in a data repository such as a relational database that must be defined in terms of field name and type (e.g., alphanumeric, numeric, and currency).

Question 28

Unstructured data

Answer 28

Data that do not reside in a traditional relational database (e.g., email messages, work processing documents, videos).

Question 29

Big Data

Answer 29

A collection of data that is so large and complex that it is difficult to manage using traditional database management systems.

Question 30

Characteristics of Big Data

Answer 30

Characteristics of Big Data
1. Volume – mass amounts of data.
- A single jet engine can generate 10 terabytes of data in 30 minutes.
2. Velocity – the rate at which data flow into an organization is rapidly increasing.
- Critical because it increases the speed of feedback loop between a company, its customers, its suppliers, and its business partners.
3. Variety – Big Data formats change rapidly.
- Includes satellite imagery, broadcast audio streams, digital music files, web page content, scans of government documents, and comments posted on social media networks.

Question 30

Big Data generally consists of the following:

Answer 30

• Traditional enterprise data (e.g., customer relationship management systems, operations data, etc.).
• Machine-generated/sensor data (e.g., smart meters, manufacturing sensors, sensors integrated into smartphones, automobiles.).
• Social data (e.g., customer feedback comments, Microblogging sites such as Twitter, and social media sites.).
• Images captured by billions of devices located throughout the world, from digital cameras and camera phones to medical scanners and security cameras.

Question 31

Issues with Big Data

Answer 31

1. Big Data can come from Untrusted sources.
2. Big data is dirty
   Dirty data - inaccurate, duplicate, or erroneous data.
   Ex. Problems such as misspelling of words and duplicate data such as retweets or company press releases that appear multiple times in social media.
3. Big data changes

Question 32

Massively parallel processing

Answer 32

the coordinated processing of an application by multiple processors that work on different parts of the application, with each processor utilizing its own operating system and memory.

Question 33

Cold data

Answer 33

The storage of relatively inactive data that does not have to be accessed frequently or rapidly.

Question 34

Hot data

Answer 34

Data that must be accessed frequently and rapidly.

Question 35

Data warehouse

Answer 35

A repository of historical data that are organized by subject to support decision makers within the organization.

Question 36

Data mart

Answer 36

a low-cost, scaled-down version of a data warehouse that is designed for the end-user needs in a strategic business unit or an individual department.

Question 37

Knowledge management (KM)

Answer 37

a process that helps organizations manipulate important knowledge that comprises part of the organization’s memory, usually in an unstructured format.

Question 38

Explicit knowledge

Answer 38

The more objective, rational, and technical types of knowledge.

Question 39

Tacit knowledge

Answer 39

The cumulative store of subjective or experiential learning, white is highly personal and hard to formalize.

Question 40

Knowledge management systems (KMSs)

Answer 40

the use of modern technologies – the internet, intranets, extranets, and databases – to systemize, enhance, and expedite knowledge management both within one firm and among multiple firms.

Question 41

The KMS Cycle

Answer 41

1. Create knowledge – Knowledge is created as people determine new ways of doing things or develop know-how. Sometime external knowledge is brough in.
2. Capture knowledge – New knowledge must be identified as valuable and be presented in a reasonable way.
3. Refine knowledge – New knowledge must be placed in context so that it is actionable.
4. Store knowledge – useful knowledge must be stored in a reasonable format in a knowledge repository so that other people in the organization can access it.
5. Manage knowledge – the knowledge must be kept current. Must be reviewed regularly to verify that it is relevant and accurate.
6. Disseminate knowledge – knowledge must be made available in a useful format to anyone in the organization who need it, anywhere and anytime.

Question 42

Structured query language (SQL)

Answer 42

The most popular query language for requesting information from a relational database.

Question 43

Query by example (QBE)

Answer 43

A method to obtain information from a relational database by filling out a grid or template – also known as a form – to construct a sample or a description of the data desired.

Question 44

Entity-relationship modelling

Answer 44

The process of designing a database by organizing data entities to be used and identifying the relationships among them.

Question 45

Entity-relationship (ER) diagram

Answer 45

Document that shows data entities and attributes and relationships among them.

Question 46

Data dictionary

Answer 46

A collection of definitions of data elements; data characteristics that use the data elements; and the individuals, business functions, applications, and reports that use these data elements.

Question 47

Normalization

Answer 47

a method for analyzing and reducing a relational database to its most streamlined form to ensure minimum redundancy, maximum data integrity, and optimal processing performance.