MIS 300: Chapter 2

Question 1

Structured Decisions

Answer 1

Operational decisions… arise in situations where established processes offer potential solutions.

Question 2

Semi-Structured Decisions

Answer 2

Managerial decisions… occur in situations in which a few established processes help to evaluate potential solutions, but not enough to lead to a definite recommended decision.

Question 3

Unstructured Decisions

Answer 3

Strategic decisions… occurs in situation in which no procedures or rules exists to guide decisions makers toward the correct choice.

Question 4

Project

Answer 4

A temporary activity a company undertakes to create a unique product, service, or result. (ex. construction of a new subway station)

Question 5

Metrics

Answer 5

Measurements that evaluate results to determine whether a project is meeting its goals.

Question 6

Critical Success Factors (CFS’s)

Answer 6

Cruicial steps companies perform to achieve their goals and objectives and implement their strategies… examples:

• create high-quality products
• retain competitive advantages
• reduce product costs

Question 7

Key Performance Indicators

Answer 7

Quantifiable metrics a company uses to evaluate progress toward critical success factors. More specific than Critical Success Factors.

• Turnover rates of employees
• Number of product returns

Question 8

Market Share

Answer 8

An external KPI… The portion of the market the firm captures.

Question 9

Return on Investment

Answer 9

A common internal KPI… indicates the earning power of the project.

Question 10

Efficiency MIS metrics

Answer 10

Measure the performance of MIS itself, such as throughput transaction speed, and system availability.

Question 11

Throughput

Answer 11

The amount of information that can travel through a system at any point in time.

Question 12

Transaction Speed

Answer 12

The amount of time a system takes to perform a transaction.

Question 13

System Availability

Answer 13

The number of hours a system is available for users.

Question 14

Information Accuracy

Answer 14

The extent to which a system generates the correct results when executing the same transaction numerous times.

Question 15

Response Time

Answer 15

The time it takes to response to user interactions such as a mouse click.

Question 16

Usability

Answer 16

The ease with which people perform transactions and/or fine information.

Question 17

Customer Satisfaction

Answer 17

Measured by satisfaction surveys, percentage of existing customers retained, and increases in revenue dollars per customer.

Question 18

Conversion Rates

Answer 18

The number of customers and organization “touches” for the first time and persuades to purchase its products or services.

Question 19

Benchmarks

Answer 19

Baseline values the system seeks to attain.

Question 20

Benchmarking

Answer 20

A process of continuously measuring system results, comparing those results to optimal system performance , and identifying steps and procedures to improve system performance.

Question 21

Model

Answer 21

A simplified representation or abstraction of reality.

Question 22

Transactional Information

Answer 22

Encompasses all the information contained within a single business process or unit of work, and its primary purpose is to support the performance of daily operational or structured decisions.

Question 23

Online Transaction Processing (OLTP)

Answer 23

the capture of transaction and event inforamtion using technology to 1) process them information according to defined business rules, 2) store the information, 3) update existing information to reflect the new events.