Test #4 Review Sheet
The final exam will largely be comprehensive, but new material from topics covered in
since the 3rd exam will also appear on the final exam.
The final exam is worth 130 points.
There will be multiple choice and True/False questions. The questions will cover the
following topics:
Managing IT topics: link to ALL SLIDES with the blanks filled : NOTE: you will
still be responsible for this entire section, even though I did not get all of the slides
covered in class.
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Know the laws related to privacy.
Know the different types/groups of people that commit computer crime. Know which group
commits most of the computer crime.
Make sure that you review the different ways to ensure computer security. Compare and contrast
each method. Know which ones are more secure and less secure.
What is the rule regarding software installation and site licenses for computers?
When you purchase software, what exactly are you buying?
Know what each of the following is and its characteristics: hacking, clickstream, cyberstalking,
phishing, spyware, adware, cookie files, web logs, key logger software, Trojan horse software,
spam, denial-of-service attack, spoofing.
How do companies monitor employees and why do they do it (several reasons)?
Be able to compare and contrast the various measures that businesses can take to make their
information and information technology more secure.
How do the following compare and contrast in terms of security provided? (passwords vs
biometrics vs encryption vs firewall software)
What is biometrics? How is it used? What is a firewall? How is it used?
What is the difference between a hacker, a thrill-seeking hacker, a white-hat hacker, a black-hat
hacker, a cyberterrorist, a hackivist, a cracker, and script bunnies/kiddies? What is dumpster
diving and social engineering? For each of the items listed above, what is its goal or objective?
Make sure that you review the ethics pages in the text
What are the three components of an IT system?
Be able to explain the major ethical issues facing businesses today.
Be able to compare and contrast the different ways that your privacy can be compromised and that
you can be monitored.
How can organizations protect themselves?
What are the information security lines of defense and describe the components that make up each
line.
Compare and contrast the various forms of authentication.
Compare and contrast content filtering vs encryption vs firewalls.
Where are firewalls typically located?
Compare and contrast the security threats to e-business (elevation of privilege, hoaxes, malicious
code, spoofing, spyware, sniffer, packet tampering)
What are the 5 different ways that you can protect yourself? (last slide in notes)
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
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Identify
 Who are the ERP vendors?
 Which ERP vendor has the #1 and #2 market shares?
 Who are the large-size market ERP vendors and who serves the mid-small size markets?
 What is ERP system is used for the KSU iSIS system?
Describe
 What is ERP software and what is its purpose?
 What is at the heart of all ERP systems and what role does it play?
 What are the core components of an ERP system?
 What are the extended ERP components?
 How does an ERP system automate business processes?
Evaluate
 Compare and contrast the benefits and disadvantages/risk/costs of an ERP system.
 Know some of the characteristics of an ERP implementation (both the good and bad
sides).
 Compare and contrast the “organization before ERP” and the “organization after an ERP
implementation.”
 Compare and contrast the core ERP components with the Extended ERP components.
What is the general focus of each, as well as the specific focus of each?
Looking at the Quality of Data and Information
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What are the common characteristics of high-quality information?
Compare and contrast the common characteristics of high-quality information. For each
characteristic, know examples of each one.
Be able to explain the sources of low-quality information.
What is information cleansing/scrubbing?
Be able to compare/contrast and discuss the business need of having accurate information
versus having complete information. What are the thoughts regarding how much of each
that an organization should have?
Networks and Telecommunications
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Identify
 What are protocols?
 Know what an IP address looks like. I may show you a number and ask you if it is an IP
address (or not).
 What is a network?
 What is a VPN?
Describe
 Know the difference between the different elements of the Client/Server model: Data
Management vs Presentation vs Business Logic.
 Be able to define or explain the following terms or concepts: modem, LAN, WAN,
Ethernet, router, peer-to-peer network, and client/server network. Know examples of
each.
 What is the difference between telecommunications and a network? What are the
benefits of a network and what are you able to use a network for?
 What are the roles of the network operating system, packet switching and routers?
 Make sure that you review the network data transfer process slide.
 What are the purpose of Ethernet, its characteristics, and what is it trying to do?
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 What is a VPN? How is it used? What are its characteristics?
Evaluate
 Know the characteristics, advantages, and disadvantages of both the peer-to-peer network
and the client/server model.
 What characteristics make a local area network different from a wide area network?
 Make sure that you know the differences between TCP and IP. Know how each one is
used and/or what it does. How does packet switching work? How is the IP address used?
What is the difference between an IP address in a LAN environment vs a dial-up
environment?
 Make sure that you review the TCP/IP four-layer reference model. Know what each
layer is called, its components and what those components each do. This information can
be found in the Haag Telecom pdf reading file linked from the lecture schedule, which is
also found at: http://online.ksu.edu/COMS/player/content?id=YBH3i74twBR
You will see several questions regarding the four layers and their various components.
 One of the things that traditionally gives students problems on the exam deals with how
the Internet actually works. The following link is a direct link to the source of the
information that I presented in class. Link to how the Internet actually works.
 Link to Easier to Understand Information Covering Networks
 Make sure that you know the details about, and differences between, each layer in the
TCP/IP four- layer reference model. EXPECT TO SEE 5-6 QUESTIONS related to the
specific components of this model (maybe even 1 question per layer).
 Compare and contrast TCP/IP. What are the characteristics of each and when/where is it
used?
 Make sure that you review the TCP/IP four-layer reference model. Know what each
layer is called, its components and what those components each do. You will see several
questions regarding the four layers and their various components.
 Know the characteristics, advantages, and disadvantages of both the peer-to-peer network
and the client/server model.
Wireless LANs: All of these items will be tested at the Describe and Evaluate levels.
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What are some of the characteristics of wireless LANs? What is needed, how are they created, and
how do communications occur?
What is Bluetooth? What are the characteristics of Bluetooth and why is it used?
What are the characteristics of a PAN? (Personal Area Network)
How are wireless LANs different than wired LANs?
Link to wireless LAN info at KSU (forms the basis of our class presentation)
Know the differences between the various 802.11 standards (a vs b vs g vs n). What are the
characteristics of each 802.11 standard?
I would suggest reviewing these items that were frequently missed on prior exams
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I would suggest going back and studying the following items:
1. How does an expert system function? What happens when you use it?
2. Be able to distinguish between the following types of agents: data-mining agent vs
information agent vs monitoring & surveillance agent vs user agent. Know examples of
each.
3. What form of artificial intelligence is able to learn and modify itself as a result of its
learning?
4. What form of artificial intelligence is able to apply reasoning capabilities to solve a
problem?
5. What form of artificial intelligence compares and searches for matches?
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What is the difference between data and information and how can one be distinguished
from the other? Be able to distinguish between data, information and business
intelligence. Know examples of each.
What are the characteristics of a decision support system? Under what circumstances
would someone use a DSS versus using some form of artificial intelligence?
Make sure that you are able to distinguish between when a neural network should be used
versus when an expert system should be used versus when a genetic algorithm should be
used versus when someone should use a DSS. Expect situational questions where I will
present a situation and then ask you what type of system should be used to solve the
problem.
Be able to distinguish between data, information and business intelligence. Know
examples of each.
Is supply chain management a business philosophy or a technology? Is customer
relationship management a business philosophy or a technology? Explain.
How is operational CRM different from analytical CRM? Know examples of each.
How can a company use technology to improve its operational CRM?
What is the purpose of analytical CRM? How are data warehouses, data mining and web
site personalization used?
How do the shipment tracking features on the web sites of Federal Express and UPS
illustrate the concepts of web-based self-service and operational CRM?
Evaluate the goals and purposes of the different forms of CRM (both operational and
analytical).
What is cloud computing? How is it accomplished? What are its characteristics? What
is the “software as a service model?”
Compare and contrast TCP/IP. What are the characteristics of each and when/where is it
used?
Make sure that you review the TCP/IP four-layer reference model. Know what each
layer is called, its components and what those components each do. You will see several
questions regarding the four layers and their various components.
One of the things that traditionally gives students problems on the exam deals with how
the Internet actually works. The following link is a direct link to the source of the
information that I presented in class. Link to how the Internet actually works.
Know the characteristics, advantages, and disadvantages of both the peer-to-peer network
and the client/server model.
What is a data warehouse? How is a data warehouse different from an organization's
operational databases?
SQL
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Identify
 What is SQL?
Describe
 What is SQL used for?
 Be able to describe what each of the following SQL commands accomplishes: SELECT,
FROM, WHERE, ORDER BY, INNER JOIN
Evaluate
 If I give you some SQL code, be able to interpret what the code is doing (be able to
explain the coding). This is similar to what you had to do on your Access assignment.
Spreadsheets and Microsoft Excel. Although you won’t have to create anything in
Excel, being able to apply the Excel skills that you learned will be crucial for success on
the exam.
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Describe
 What is the difference between absolute, mixed and relative cell references? How do you
create each type of reference?
Apply
 I would also go back and review what you were required to do in your Excel activities lab
activities since questions will be asked about some of the activities that you did on lab
while working on the Excel assignments.
 What is the purpose of the IF function and what does it allow you to do?
 When creating a table that will be used in a VLOOKUP function, what is the rule that
must be followed when arranging items in the first column of the lookup table (how must
words be arranged and how must numbers be arranged in that first column?)
 How do you create a formula that goes between one sheet and another, or between one
file and another?
 PivotTables: make sure that you know what a PivotTable is and how it can be used.
Make sure that you are familiar with how to create one. Know the different parts of the
PivotTable wizard (drop data fields here, drop row fields here, drop column fields here,
drop report filter fields here). What is the purpose of the report filters/slicers?
 Subtotals: Make sure you know how to apply subtotals in Excel, and what you must
actually do before specifying the subtotals command.
 Make sure that you UNDERSTAND HOW YOU USED each of the Excel functions in
your assignments and why you used that one, and not a different one.
 Be able to apply and use the rules that Excel follows to evaluate formulas.
 Be able to create an absolute and mixed cell reference.
 Know how to create interactive cell references that refer to other locations.
 In the PMT function, why did you divide something by 12? Why did you multiply
something by 12? Why did you enter the loan amount into the 3rd function argument box
as a negative number?
 In the IF function, what are the three required arguments?
 Make sure that you know and understand the following functions and/or features:
COUNT, MAX, MIN, AVERAGE, TODAY.
 What are the characteristics of a recorded macro?
 What are the benefits and weaknesses of using a recorded macro?
Database Theory, Database Design and Microsoft Access
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Identify
 What is a primary key and know the best examples of primary keys.
Describe
 Be able to describe/define and distinguish between each of the following: character, field,
record, table, file, database, and data warehouse. You might also know where each one
fits in a hierarchy from largest to smallest.
 Be able to describe the process of normalization. What is it? What does it involve? What
is its goal?
 Be able to distinguish between an instance, attribute, entity class, and an integrity
constraint. Know examples of each one of those items.
 What is a query and how do you make one?
 What happens when you create the structure of a database?
 What is the difference between a filter and a Query?
 Make sure that you read/review the pdf file found at
http://info.cba.ksu.edu/bkovar/DesigningDatabaseApplications.pdf
 What is the role of a relationship between multiple tables and what is the basis for
making a relationship?
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What is a data warehouse? How is a data warehouse different from an organization's
operational databases?
 What is data mining and how does it apply to data warehouses? What is the objective of
data mining?
 What is the difference between a database and a database management system?
 What is the goal of a database management system? How does redundancy fit in?
 What is the PURPOSE of the relationship line? What does it do?
 Link to additional information about creating relationships between tables.
 What happens when you select to enforce referential integrity?
 What is an integrity constraint? Be able to provide several examples of integrity
constraints that someone might decide to create.
 NEW: What are the characteristics of a data warehouse?
Evaluate
 NEW: How is the XBRL schema and a data dictionary similar?
 How is a relational database different from a data warehouse?
You will need to know the systems listed below in quite a bit of depth. You should be
able to compare/contrast the systems, knowing the characteristics of each system
and how it is typically used. On the exam, you will see LOTS of situational
questions, where I will describe something that is happening, and then you will need
to select the system from the 5 choices on the exam that will BEST meet the needs of
that situation. KNOW AND UNDERSTAND THE EXAMPLES GIVEN FOR
EACH ONE.
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Decision Support Systems
Executive Information Systems
Geospatial Information System
Transaction Processing System
Expert Systems
Neural Networks
Genetic Algorithms
Intelligent Agents
I also suggest reviewing the pdf file that forms that basis of the classroom
presentations for Decision Support Systems and Artificial Intelligence. You can
access the pdf file by clicking on this highlighted link.
Decision Support Systems
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Describe
 What types of problems can best be solved with a decision support system?
 What is the basic difference between programmed/structured decisions and
nonprogrammed/unstructured decisions? Know examples of each type of
decision/situation.
 What are the characteristics of a geospatial information system? Know several examples
of how it is used, or how it can be used. Please review the Geospatial Information
Systems (Geographical Information Systems) pages in your text and in the pdf file.
 What is the basic purpose of an executive information system and what are its
features/characteristics? What is the purpose and role of a transaction processing system?
What are its characteristics and what type of data or information does it interact with?
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What is the difference between optimization and satisficing?
NEW: What is the difference between something that is subjective vs objective?
NEW: What is the difference between something that is qualitative vs quantitative?
NEW: What is the Excel Solver? What does it do? What are constraints and what are
the role of constraints? When using the Solver, are you using a satisficing technique or
an optimization technique?
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Evaluate
 What is the difference between what-if analysis, goal seek, sensitivity analysis,
optimization, and satisficing? When would you use each method?
 What is the difference between analytical information and transactional information?
What are the characteristics of each? As you move through the organizational pyramid,
how to information needs and types of information change?
Artificial Intelligence
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Describe
 What is the basic difference between a decision support system and artificial intelligence
systems?
 Know the different forms of artificial intelligence and when each one is typically used
 How are rules and IF statements used in expert systems?
 When talking about artificial intelligence, what is the role of fuzzy logic?
 Know the 4 different types of intelligent agents (definition and examples of what they
do). How is one form different from other forms?
 Know what data-mining is and how data warehouses are considered to be
multidimensional. What is a cube? It would be a good idea to understand the different
aspects of a cube and how it can be “sliced and diced”. This was mentioned in class and
it can also be seen in the PowerPoint slide where cubes A, B and C are seen.
 For each of the artificial intelligence systems, what human ability is being “mimicked”
and how does that particular system go about solving business problems? Know specific
business examples for each.
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Evaluate
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Know the difference between a DSS vs expert system vs genetic algorithm vs neural
network vs intelligent agent. Know the characteristics of each and applications of where
each could be used.
Know the difference between the following systems: TPS, DSS, Executive Support
Systems, Geospatial Information Systems, and artificial intelligence.
You will see LOTS of scenario questions where I will ask that you indicate which
system would BEST solve the problem. Expect 4-5 of these types of questions for each
system mentioned above.
Strategic Initiatives for Implementing Competitive Advantages
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Identify
 What is ERP software?
 What is a competitive advantage?
 What is the concept of BPR?
Describe
 Describe how a business might use information technology to gain a competitive
advantage? What specific things might a business decide to do?
 Describe the benefits of effectively and efficiently managing your organization’s supply
chain?
 Describe why businesses implement ERP systems
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What are the characteristics of ERP software and how is it used by organizations?
NEW: What is automation and how is it an example of an operational business process
change?
 NEW: What is streamlining and how is it an example of a managerial business process
change?
 NEW: What is business process reengineering and how is it an example of a strategic
business process change?
Evaluate
 Compare and contrast SCM, CRM and ERP software.
 Compare and contrast the characteristics of each of the following concepts: BPR, CRM,
SCM, ERP
Chapter 1: Business Driven Technology
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Identify
 What is ERP software?
 Make sure that you review which business function areas (figure 1.2) would benefit most
from using information technology.
 Please review the contents of the slide “Information Technology enables business
success)
Describe
 Be able to distinguish between data, information and business intelligence. Know
examples of each.
 What are the 3 most important resources in any organization and what is the relationship
between each of those items? Which is the most valuable and why?
 Describe how businesses use ERP software and what ERP software does.
 Describe Business Intelligence and what is included in business intelligence? How is it
used in making strategic business decisions?
 Make sure that you review the information technology goals that an organization might
have (figure 1.3). Know the rank order of those goals and information technology
services which might help an organization meet those goals (see the notes you took down
during class).
 Know which IT skills are most commonly used in each of the business professions (don’t
just know your area, but know all areas)? Which ones appear to be common to all
business areas? Expect to see several questions related to this topic. In the lecture notes,
you will also see several more detailed slides (that I did not directly mention in class) that
cover this topic. Please make sure you review those detailed slides, as well.
 Describe how businesses use ERP software and what ERP software does.
Evaluate
 What is the difference between data and information and how can one be distinguished
from the other?
Supply Chain Management (SCM) and RFID:
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Describe
 Be able to describe how RFID works.
 What are the goals of supply chain management?
 Explain ITs role in the supply chain.
 Why is it important to have a global inventory management system?
 Describe the role of RFID in global inventory management.
 Is supply chain management a business philosophy or a technology? Explain.
Evaluate
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How is Radio Frequency Identification used and how might it be used in the future?
How does it compare to other input devices? Please review Figure B8.9 on page 341 in
the text to find out more information about how RFID works.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
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Identify
 What are the phases of CRM? Know examples.
Describe
 What are the goals of customer relationship management? What are companies trying to
find out?
 What is the difference between up-selling and cross-selling? Know examples of each
 .Is customer relationship management a business philosophy or a technology? Explain.
 How can technology be used in customer relationship management? Know examples
 .How is operational CRM different from analytical CRM? Know examples of each
 .Describe the following technologies used in operational CRM (list generators, sales
force automation, and contact management software).
 How can a company use technology to improve its operational CRM?
 What is the purpose of analytical CRM? How are data warehouses, data mining and web
site personalization used?
 How do the shipment tracking features on the web sites of Federal Express and UPS
illustrate the concepts of web-based self-service and operational CRM?
Evaluate
 Evaluate the goals and purposes of the different forms of CRM (both operational and
analytical).
Cloud Computing
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Identify
 What is cloud computing?
Describe
 What is the platform for cloud computing? Where is data stored in cloud computing?
Where do applications run from?
 Explain the software as a service model.
 Who is the recognized leader in cloud computing?
Business Intelligence
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Identify
 What is business intelligence?
 What is the center of any business intelligence effort?
Describe
 What does Sun Tzu say in The Art of War and how does that apply to the concept of
business intelligence?
 Know examples of different forms of business intelligence.
 What role does data mining play in business intelligence?
 There are four goals of data mining. What are those four goals and how is one different
from another?
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What is the business intelligence tool used by most organizations (software program and
specific functionality within that program)
Evaluate
 How does business intelligence compare to data and information?
 Compare and contrast the most common forms of data mining. Know what each one is
and applied examples of each.
XML: Please review the XML materials that you were given as part of your pre-lab and project work
since those tutorials also serve as your XML book.
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Identify
 What is the rule regarding having spaces within your XML tags?
 What are some of the rules that must be followed for a document to be considered wellformed?
Describe
 Know what XML is and how it is used.
 What is XBRL and how is it used?
 During class, I read an article from the Wall Street Journal dealing with XBRL, titled:
“XBRL: The Language of Love for Mutual Funds”. I would suggest reviewing the full
text of the article as part of your preparations for the exam.
Evaluate
 Know how XML and HTML are different.
 Know the difference between a well-formed XML instance document, an XML
Stylesheet, and a XML schema. How is each used?
 What is the difference between a well-formed XML instance document and one that is
not well-formed? What can cause an XML instance document to NOT be considered
well-formed?