Textbook Flashcards
What does ‘process aware’ mean?
To be process aware means to view their actions in regards to the larger business process and to think about how they can improve the process
What is a business process/system?
A series of tasks/activities/actions/steps designed to produce a product or service
Describe the 4 components of a business process?
Activities - Manual actions (people following procedures), automated or controlled procedures done by a computer or some combination of the two.
Resources - Items of value (people working, cash, inventory etc).
Facilities - Structures used within the the business process. Resources can be stored in them Eg. factories, filing cabinets, pieces of equipment, truck and in the case of digital resources data bases and inventories can be included
Information - Activities use information to to determine how to transform inputs received into outputs produced.
Which of the 4 categories of the business process would suppliers and and customers fit into?
Resources because they provide value to the business process. They are not considered activities because they are an external part of the process and not under direct control.
What is information?
data presented in meaningful context, knowledge derived from data, processed data.
What characteristics must information have to be useful?
It must be timely, relevant, just barely sufficient (not too much so as to overwhelm) and worth its cost.
What are the 3 decision making levels?
Operational, Managerial and strategic levels.
What are operational decisions? what is the IS called that supports these?
day to day activities such as ordering more stock, deciding who to extend credit to, which invoices should we pay today? etc. The IS supporting these is called transaction processing systems (TPS)
What are managerial decisions? What is the IS called that supports them?
These concern the allocation and utilization of resources. eg how much should we budget for computers next year? how many people should we assign to x project? How much warehouse space will we need next year? etc. The IS that supports managerial decisions is called Management information systems (MIS)
What are strategic decisions?
Concerns broader organizational issues. Eg, Should we start a new product line? Should we open a new centralized warehouse? Should we acquire company A?
What’s the difference between a structured decision and an unstructured decision?
A structured decision is one with a understood and and accepted method for making the decision. eg a formulated ordering of new stock. an unstructured decision is one with no agreed upon decision making method. Prediction method varies from person to person. eg, hiring or deciding future of company etc
What’s the difference between efficiency and effectiveness?
efficiency - “doing things right”. using just the right amount of resources to to complete the job satisfactorily.
effectiveness - “doing the right things” improving or offering new goods and services.
What is a value chain?
A network of activities that improve the effectiveness of of a good or service.
What is backward and forward integration?
backward integration is when a business who deals with a good moves a step back in the value chain ie a coffee store starts growing it’s ow coffee or a car dealership starts manufacturing it’s own cars. forward integration is when a business moves forward one step in the value chain ie a mining company starts cutting and and finishing their own diamonds.
What are primary activities?
activities which directly add value to the product. eg shipping materials, designing, manufacturing the product etc.
What are support activities?
Activities that indirectly add value to the product eg paying the workers, maintenance, management etc
What is the 5 forces model?
There are 5 competitive forces that determine industry profitability; bargaining power of customers, threat of substitution, bargaining power of suppliers, threat of new entrants and rivalry among existing firms.
What is diffusion of innovation?
The process by which an innovation is communicated through certain channels over time by the members of a social system. It happens in 5 stages; 1. knowledge 2 persuasion 3. decision 4. implementation 5. confirmation
What is a cache?
A cache is of very fast memory that stores frequently used instructions. larger cache = faster computer but more expensive. Stored in CPU.
What does volatile refer to when talking about memory?
volatile memory refers to the cache and main memory both of which are lost when the power goes off.
What’s the difference between Horizontal and Vertical market applications?
Horizontal market applications are general programs used across many different organizations and industries. eg power point, excel etc. Vertical market applications are designed for one specific industry eg dentistry or mechanics and fix a niche problem. they are often customized or tailored to a specific firm
What is firmware?
software that is installed into devices such as printers, controllers etc. It i installed in read only memory (ROM)
What is BIOS?
Basic input/output system that is used when the computer is first booted up. It is required because all volatile memory is lost when the computer is unpowered so the BIOS offers instructions to restart etc.
Whats the difference between thin and thick clients?
thin and thick refer to the amount of codethat must run on the client computer. applications that require nothing but a browser are considered thin where as thick may have some othrer part downloaded
What is content?
- Difficult to define
- Something of value and can be considered an asset. - — Related to intellectual property
- depends on industry
- examples include pictures, account info or words
Why are content management systems important?
HElp organizations ensure that data collected is acurate, organized and presentable.
What is a database?
A self describing collection of integrated records.
What is a key?
A key is a column that identifies a unique row within the database/spreadsheet. necessary for every database table.
What are foreign keys?
keys from another table than the one they are found in
What are relational databases?
tables that represent relationships using foreign keys
What is meta data?
data that describes other data. eg notes about data or a table or a column that explains the data type. included in every database
What is a database application?
A collection of forms, reports, queries and application programs. May have multiple applications per database.
What is the lost update problem in database management systems?
When 2 or more users are accessing th database information inputted from one can be lost if they are trying to both input to the same table etc.
What are the 5 components of an information system in order?
Hardware, Software, Data Procedures, people
What are the components of a LAN?
Switch, NIC, unsheilded twisted pair cable
What extra component does a WLAN need?
It needs a router as well as computers with WNIC
What is a NIC?
Network interface card - connects a computers circuitry to the network cable
Why is mobile computing important?
furthers e-commerce, convenience of use,
What are functional systems?
they facilitate the the work of a single department or business function. ie operational, accounting, HR or sales systems
What are cross functional systems?
functional systems that have been integrated with other functional systems throughout a firm.
What are inter-organizational systems?
cross functional systems that span 2 or more organizations
What is PIPEDA and what does it do?
Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act
-intended to balance an individual’s right to privacy of personal info which organizations need to collect/use/share for business ie governs how data is collected and used, info can only be used for the purpose it was gathered for, responsibility for organization to protect the data
3 sources of security problems are what?
HUman error and mistakes, Malocious Human activity and Natural events and disasters
What are the 5 types of security problems? What categories of security problems does each fall into?
- Unauthorized data disclosure
- Incorrect data modification
- Faulty service
- Denial of service
- Loss of infrastructure
All 5 can fall into each category
What are 4 examples of malicious release of Unauthorized data ?
Pretexting - occurs when someone decieves by pretending to be someone else via telephone
Phishing - similar to pretexting but uses email instead of phone
spoofing - Someone pretending to be someone else
Sniffing - technique for intercepting computer communications
What is faculty recovery action?
When data is incorrectly stored after a disaster
What are 3 examples of faculty service security problems?
- problems that result of sytems working incorrectly or incorrect data modification
- Usurpation - occurs when unauthorized programs invade a computer system and replace legitimate programs
- mistakes made from recovery of natural disasters
What are 3 examples of Denial of service attacks?
- Human error or lack of procedures that cause service to be denied
- DOS attack ie malicious hacker floods web server so it can not service legit requests
- Natural disasters cause systems to fail
What is the biggest risk for loss infrastructure ?
Natural disaster such as earthquake
What are the 3 elements of a good security program?
- Senior management involvement to establish security policy and balance costs and benefits of security program
- Safeguards to protect against various threats, safeguards involve hardware, software, data, procedures and people
- incident response plan to be readiy in case of any future security incidents
What are 4 technical safeguards? give an example for each.
- Identification and authorization (smart cards, passwords/username biometric system etc)
- Encryption using a key to decrypt encrypted messages ( Symmetric or Asymmetric keys for {each party has the same key or there is 2 different ones, one that is public and one that is private}, SSL/TLS, digital signatures or certificates.
- Firewalls - prevents unauthorized network access. (hardware or software based)
- Malware protection (antivirus/spyware programs)
What are 6 ways to prevent malware?
- install antivirus and anti-spyware programs
- scan hard drive and email frequently
- update malware definitions
- Open e-mail attachments only from known sources
- install software updates promptly
- browse only reputable sites
What does a data administration do?
Organization wide administration that develpos data policies and enforces data standards
What is a database administration?
Makes procedures for multi-user processing, changes to control structure, and protects database
What are 5 data safegaurds?
- Data rights and responsibilities ( enforced by user accounts authenticated by passwords)
- Data encryption
- Backup and recovery procedures
- Physical security ( lock and controll access to facility, maintain entry log etc)
- Third party contracts (safeguards written into contracts, right to inspect premises and personnel)
What are 5 sample recovery strategies and their description?
- Work area recovery (WAR) - Office space pre-configured with office equipment at a recovery facility. (usually available for monthly fee)
- Cold site - A room or building used for recovery but not set up for immediate use. Made for long term interruptions
- Hot Site - A recovery location that is available 24-7. Applications and sytems running all the time or can be started within 2 hours
- Relocate - short term solution is to move to toher company branches etc to resume work
- Shut down - temporarily halt all non essential activities
What is an enterprise architect?
Blueprint of an organizations information systems and the management of these systems by considering: organizational objectives, business processes, databases, information flows, software, supporting technology
What is reach-range framework?
reach refers to the extent an organization is integrated and range refers to the type of functionality of applications
What is the Zachman framework?
6 reasons for communication what-data, how-function, where-network, who-people, when-time,why-motivation
stakeholder groups - planner, owner, designer, builder, implementer and worker
What is IT alignment?
Process of matching organization methods with IT architecture
What are the 5 ways to acquire software?
- Buy it as is
- Buy it and customize it
- Rent or lease it
- Build it yourself
- Outsource it
What is IT operations responsible for?
maintaining the current IT infrastructure via delivery of service, maintenence, protection and management of IT infrastructure
What are IT projects for?
renewing and adapting to kwwp IT working effectively in the future. Responsible for changing the system rather than maintaining it.
What are 4 dimensions of success for an IT project?
- Resource constraint - meets time and budget criteria
- Impact on customers: Customer receives significant value
- Business success - how high and long are the profits from the project?
- Prepare the future: Impacts made so that future business success and customer impact more likely
What is SDLC?
System development life cycle - classic process used to acquire IS. The phases where IS is planned, analyzed, designed, implemented and maintained
What are the 5 phases of the System development Life cycle?
- Systems definition - Why should the system be built? (defined by managers)
- Requirement analysis - what should the system do? Identify features and functions
- Component design - How will it be built? based on approved user requirements
- Implementation - Put it in action: implement, test and install new system
- System maintenance: Fix and upgrade, add new features, maintain etc
What are 4 considerations for assessing feasibility of a project?
Cost, Schedule, Technical, and organization
What are some considerations for Requirement analysis of IT projects?
System requirements, scope of project, specific features and functions ie required inputs and outputs
What are considerations for component design of IT projects?
- Hardware - designed determined by project team
- Software - Design depends on source ( off the shelf, with alterations etc)
- Data - converted to database design
- Procedures - developed for normal processing, backup and failure recovery operations
Job description - created for users and operations personnel
What are the considerations for implementation of IT projects?
Component construction, documentation and review, System testing and integration. Users must be converted to the knew system
What kinds of system conversion are there?
Parallel - new system runs with the old one during testing ( expensive)
Phased - installed in phases and tested after each phase (cant be used in tightly integrated systems)
Pilot - Organizations implement entire system on single limited unit ( if unit fails it only affects that one unit, reduces exposure)
Plunge - Direct installation of new and discontinuation of old (risky)
What are the problems with SDLC?
Waterfall method - phases are no supposed to be repeated ( though often teams need to)
Difficulty in documenting requirements - paralysis by analysis
Scheduling and budget difficulties - multiyear projects difficult to schedule, estimations difficult to get accurate
Why would a company outsource IT/IS?
- gain expertise ( specialists)
B. reduce costs ( part time services, economies of scale)
- reduce risks
What are outsourcing risks?
- Loss of control
- Benefits can be outweighed by long term costs ie high unit cost forever
- No easy exit ( critical knowledge in minds of vendors)
What’s the difference between Merchant companies and Non-Merchant companies?
Merchant companies - Own the goods they sell, Buy goods and then resell them, sell the services they provide
Non merchant comapnies - arrange for the purchase and sale of goods without ever owning them, sell services provided by others
What are examples of merchant and non merchant companies?
merchant - B2C, B2B, B2G
Non merchant - Auctions ( Ebay), Clearinghouses ( Ebay, Amazon), exchanges (stock)
What are the benefits of e-commerce?
Greater market efficiency via:
- Disintermediation and increased information and terms.
- Knowledge of price elasticity ( losing bidder auction prices, Price experimentation, more accurate info obtained directly from customer)
What are the benefits of E-commerce specific to merchants?
- Overcome geographical limitiations
- Gain new customers
- Lower costs (real estate, employees, advertising and marketing)
- Can create targeted communication
- open 24/7
- Create market for Niche products
- Easily implment coupons and limited time offers
What are the benefits of E-commerce specific to customers?
Eliminate travel and costs
- increased convenience
- Easy comparison shopping
- Locate unique products faster
- Less reliance/loyalty on favourite vendor
What are the issues with E-commerce?
Channel conflice - B2B may compete with B2B customers
Price conflict with traditional channels - manufacturer selling direct to customersa at lower prices
Logistics - Processing orders in small quantities, manufacturer has to set up shipping department
Customer service expense - manufacturer selling to customer has to set up customer service department
Showrooming - Customers checking out product in store but buying online
Taxation - Where should the tax rates be based? on creation or consumption?
How does Social Capital add value?
Information - transfer of knowledge in network
Influence - list of contacts to help in future endeavours
Social credentials - trust from others towards others
Personal reinforcement - Support from others in the network when needed
What ways can you measure value of social capital?
Number of relationships in a social network
Strength of these relationships
Resources controlled by those related
Why are weak links important?
Weak links add the greatest number of new connections to your social network
What is web 2.0?
Web integration with smartphones, user created content, social networking, location and context based services, dynamic marketplaces. Ie websites that allow users to dynamically interact with it
What 3 things do managers need to make decisions?
Data, info ( summarized data) and knowledge ( relationship between pieces of information and cause and effect)
