MIS 5390 Midterm Exam
1. One of the key reasons why preparatory tasks such as specification, planning, and
documentation became very important in complex software development projects was:
(a) The recognition that the cost of fixing mistakes decreases sharply as a project moves from
preparatory tasks to system implementation and operation (or use).
(b) The recognition that the cost of fixing mistakes increases sharply as a project moves from
preparatory tasks to system implementation and operation (or use).
(c) The lack of recognition given to those who proposed that the cost of fixing mistakes
increases sharply as a project moves from preparatory tasks to system implementation and
operation (or use).
(d) The recognition that the cost of fixing mistakes increases sharply as a food manufacturing
process moves from preparatory tasks to tool implementation and operation (or use).
2. Which of the following is not an omission of the software development lifecycle model that
has led to criticism from systems analysts and information technology managers?
(a) It does not take into consideration the need to redesign business processes before they are
automated.
(b) It does not address an issue that is problematic because often computer systems end up
being used to automate disorganized and inefficient business processes.
(c) It does not incorporate a data analysis stage, whereby entity-relationship diagrams are
developed.
(d) It does not address the calls, particularly in the 1990s, for business process change to
precede technology-based automation of organizational processes.
3. The number of possible sequences of 9 bits is:
(a) 256.
(b) 512.
(c) Two to the power of 8.
(d) 1024.
4. Which of the following cannot be seen as an example of the typical instance of information
from a linguistic perspective?
(a) The room’s temperature is currently 75 degrees Fahrenheit.
(b) The room’s temperature is not currently 75 degrees Fahrenheit.
(c) The room’s temperature is currently 75 degrees Celsius.
(d) If the room’s temperature reaches 85 degrees Fahrenheit some people will feel like leaving.
5. Production capacity is:
(a) The number of production units a business process is capable of producing.
(b) A measure that can never be estimated based on actual output measures.
(c) The number of production units being generated by a business process under very low
demand conditions.
(d) The number of production units being generated by a business process under full demand
conditions divided by the measure of quality of the business process.
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6. The technology productivity paradox is a term that does not refer to:
(a) The poor gains in productivity during the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s in the service sector.
(b) The poor gains in productivity during the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s in service companies
such as airlines, retailers, and telecommunications providers.
(c) The poor gains in productivity during the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s in the manufacturing
sector in spite of heavy information technology investments by manufacturing companies such as
Ford and GM.
(d) The poor gains in productivity during the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s in spite of heavy
information technology investments by companies such as banks and insurers.
7. It is correct to say that:
(a) Business process reengineering replaced total quality management as the predominant
school of thought in connection with business process redesign in the early 1960s.
(b) Much like scientific management, business process reengineering was presented as a
method for the improvement of manufacturing operations, but not of service operations.
(c) Business process reengineering replaced total quality management as the predominant
school of thought in connection with business process redesign in the early 1990s.
(d) Throughout the history of business process redesign, operational-level approaches to
business process redesign consistently veered away from a focus on activity flows (also known
as “workflows”), or chronological flows of activities in business processes.
8. Which of the following statements is incorrect?
(a) A focus on the flow of activities makes particularly good sense in service processes,
because those processes usually involve sequential steps that add complexity and value to
tangible items.
(b) Manufacturing processes embody “action” in the physical sense.
(c) Manufacturing processes can generally be easily represented as chronological sets of
activities that bring tangible items together.
(d) It is natural to think of manufacturing processes as sequences of activities.
9. Why do we need to model business processes?
(a) Because business processes are perceived by our five senses as real objects like a chair.
(b) Because business processes are not abstract concepts like that of a team.
(c) Because business processes are abstract concepts of which shared mental visualizations are
very hard to achieve without the development of conceptual models.
(d) Because business processes, as most abstract entities, do not need to be modeled in some
way to be understood by different people.
10. It is incorrect to say that:
(a) One of the advantages of using diagramming tools that are part of CASE tools is that they
do not enforce diagramming rules, allowing for a lot of freedom in the development of business
process models.
(b) Business process diagramming tools referred to as “lean” diagramming tools are
characterized by being independent of specific CASE tools.
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(c) CASE tools often allow one to move from business process representation to software
development with minor coding.
(d) Often commercial software tools that support the development of business process
representations are part of CASE tools.
11. Business process rigidity is:
(a) Not affected by the amount of previous investment in information technology used to
automate the business process.
(b) A systemic resistance to change, which is inherent to a business process.
(c) Always closely related to what management and employees think about the idea of
redesigning a business process.
(d) Unrelated to the degree of legal regulation affecting a business process.
12. It is incorrect to say that:
(a) The level of business process rigidity increases when a high degree of regulation affects a
business process that also has a high degree of functional heterogeneity.
(b) The degree of functional heterogeneity of a business process can be measured by counting
the number of different organizational functions or teams involved in the execution of the
process.
(c) Functional heterogeneity in organizational processes has been found to be highly correlated
with the number of knowledge specialization areas involved in business processes.
(d) A business process aimed at developing a new car model likely has a lower degree of
functional heterogeneity than a business process aimed at preparing a hamburger at a fast food
restaurant.
13. It is incorrect to say that:
(a) Operational business processes are usually designed once and then repeated many times in
order to generate wealth by adding value to products that flow through them.
(b) The frequency of redesign of operational business processes must be much lower than their
frequency of execution.
(c) In spite of their name, operational business processes are those that refer to training
activities, and not to the operations of an organization.
(d) Operational business processes directly contribute to the creation of goods or services that
are responsible for the revenues received by an organization.
14. When people exchange information as part of a business process, they can do that:
(a) Para-synchronously or asynchronously.
(b) On paper or face-to-face only.
(c) Only electronically, because that generates a record of operations that can be used later for
effective decision-making.
(d) Synchronously or asynchronously.
15. Which of the following is not an example of a business process implementation strategy?
(a) The chief information officer of a health services organization in Philadelphia outsources
all of the information technology support processes to an outside company.
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(b) A large pharmaceutical company redesigns its new drug development processes, by
dramatically reducing the number of hand-offs in those processes.
(c) A sales division of a large company that automates its new product marketing process
using an off-the-shelf marketing management computer system.
(d) A large pharmaceutical company implements a new business process through the
development of a secure Web-based document routing and control system.
16. Regarding the business process redesign project at Little Italy Restaurants, it is correct to say
that:
(a) The large simplification in the business process through the redesign project led to poor
gains in both quality and productivity.
(b) The business process redesign project led to major improvement in terms of productivity,
but not in terms of quality.
(c) The reason why the central kitchen’s manager function was no longer shown after the
redesign is that the role of that function was significantly reduced in the process.
(d) The assistant manager’s role was significantly enhanced in the redesigned process; without
him many new necessary checks and controls would not be possible in the execution of the new
redesigned process.
17. It is incorrect to say that:
(a) The process whereby duplication of data in databases is reduced to a minimum is called
normalization.
(b) Normalization reduces the size of databases, but not repetition in the process of data entry,
which is one of the main reasons why normalization is not given much importance today.
(c) The most common normal forms discussed in the literature on database design are the first,
second, and third normal forms.
(d) The transformation of a database from a non-normalized configuration to one of the
normal forms is usually done by splitting tables of the database, with the goal of eliminating
redundancies.
18. Which of the following statements is correct?
(a) Many believe that the first object-oriented programming language was Smaltalk, developed
in the 1970s by a group of researchers at a company that is widely known for being a pioneer in
the development of copying machines.
(b) Over the years, object-oriented programming has become less successful, and is now used
only in small programming projects.
(c) One of the key differences between object-oriented and traditional, or structured,
programming is that in the former program modules are designed as open functions that operate
on a group of variables defined at the beginning of a program.
(d) The independence between variables and program modules, which differentiates structured
programming from object-oriented programming, makes structured programming code much
easier to “debug” than object-oriented programming code.
19. It is incorrect to say that:
(a) Just about every Web-based transaction involves two key elements – a Web browser and a
Web server.
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(b) A Web browser usually runs on a user’s computer, which accesses the Web through one of
many services available, such as a broadband Internet service provided by a cable company.
(c) An IP address only, and never a URL, can be used to access content on a Web server or
cluster of servers associated with the same IP address.
(d) A Web server often runs on a computer that makes itself available to Web browser users
through a static IP address (e.g., 207.171.166.102) and/or a URL (e.g., www.amazon.com).
20. Regarding radical and incremental business process change, one can safely say that:
(a) Radical and incremental forms of business process redesign should never be used in a
combined way, otherwise major losses in business process productivity (but not quality) are sure
to occur.
(b) One of the most basic mistakes made in business process redesign projects is that of
making the customer’s voice heard “too loud” during the project.
(c) The dichotomy between radical and incremental business process change is somewhat
artificial, and was created to a large extent by the proponents of the business process
reengineering movement.
(d) Radical and incremental forms of business process redesign should never be used in a
combined way, otherwise major losses in business process quality (but not productivity) are sure
to occur.
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