Short Answers Ch.1
1. Differentiate between MIS and IT
a. Management Information systems deal with the planning for – development,
management, and use of – information technology tools that perform all of the tasks
related to information processing and management. Information Technology relates to
computer-based tools that support the information and information processing needs of
an organization.
2. Explain why planning for IT applications is important. Discuss the different
components of effective planning for IT
a. IT applications planning begins with the analysis of the organizational strategic plan
which states the firm’s mission, goals and steps to accomplish the goals. Then, the IT
Strategic plan incorporates the IT infrastructure and identifies the major IT initiatvies
needed to meet the orgazniations strategy.
3. Discuss purpose of business process reengineering and its relationship to
Information Technology.
a. Business process reengineering aims to redesign the business processes of an
organization in order to achieve significant improvements in cost, quality, service and
speed. BPR makes organization focus on business processes rather than tasks.
4. Differentiate among data, information and knowledge
a. Data items refer to an elementary description of things, events, activities or transactions
that are recorded, classified, and stored but are not organized to convey a specific
meaning. Information is data items organized to provide a meaningful and valuable
message to the recipient. Knowledge consists of data/info that is organized and
processed to convey understanding, expertise and experience about a particular subject
domain.
5. Differentiate between IT architecture and infrastructure.
a. IT architecture provides a high-level map of the information assets in an organization. IT
infrastructure consists of the physical facilities, IT components, IT services and IT
personnel that support the entire organization.
6. Describe the Global, Web-Based Platform
a. It is best represented by the Internet and the World Wide Web. It enables individuals to
connect, compute, communicate, collaborate and compete anytime, anywhere. It
operates without regard to geography, time, distance or language barriers.
7. Discuss three stages of globalization.
a. The first stage, Globalization 1.0, lasted from 1492 to 1800. The focus was on countries
and how much horsepower a company could deploy. The second stage, Globalization
2.0, lasted from 1800 to 2000. The focus was on companies that were going
multinational due to reduced transportation and telecommunication costs. The third
stage, Globalization 3.0, was driven by the convergence of 10 forces called Freidman’s
flatteners. The focus was on groups and individuals.
8. Describe Friedman’s “steroids”. a. Technologies that amplify other flatteners. They enable all forms of computing and
collaboration. Examples are instant messaging, wireless technologies, video
conferencing.
9. Describe the 10 flatteners.
a. Fall of the Berlin Wall on Nov 9, 1989 – led to the rise of the European Union and the
opening up of free-market economies. Netscape goes public on Aug 9, 1995 –
popularized the Internet and the world wide web. Development of work-flow software –
enabled computer applications to work with one another without human intervention.
Uploading – empowered people to create content and put it on the web. Outsourcing –
hiring externally for jobs that were formerly done internally. Offshoring – sending jobs to
other countries like China. Supply Chaining – creation of networks composed of
companies, suppliers and customers that could collaborate and share information.
Insourcing – delegating operations within a business to another company that
specializes in those operations. Informing – your ability to search information. Steroids.
10. Discuss Business Pressures.
a. Three types of pressures – Market, Technological, Societal/Legal/Political
Market Pressures are generated by the global economy and strong competition,
changing nature of the workforce and powerful customers.
Technological Pressures are generated by technological obsolescence and innovation
as well as information overload.
Societal Pressures include social responsibility, government regulation and deregulation,
spending for social programs, spending to protect against terrorism, and ethics
11. What does social responsibility mean? How does IT contribute to social
responsibility?
a. Social responsibility means that firms should act in the best interests of the people and
communities affected by its activities. A major social problem is the state of the physical
environment. Green IT Is an IT initiative that is addressing this issue.
12. Organizational feedbacks to pressures.
a. Strategic systems that enable to increase market share. Customer focus, mass
customization and make-to-order and e-business.
13. Differentiate between mass customization and mass production.
a. Mass customization is basically the mass production of individually customized goods
that are geared for a particular customer.
14. 4 myths about careers in IT.
a. First, there are no computing jobs. Second, there will be no IT jobs when I graduate.
Third, All IT jobs are moving off-shore. Fourth, computing and IT salaries are low due to
cheaper overseas labour.
Chapter 2 Info Systems 1. Define computer-based info systems and their components
a. An info system collects, processes, stores, analyzes and disseminates information for a
specific purpose. A computer based info system is an info system that uses computer
technology to perform some or all of its tasks. The basic components of a computer-
based info system are:
Hardware – devices like keyboard, monitor, and processor. They accept data and
information process it and display it
Software – a program or collection of programs that enables the hardware to process
data
Database – a collectetion of related files or tables containing data
Network – a connecting system that permits differnet computers to share resources
Procedures – set of instructions about how to combine the above components in order to
process info
People – individuals who use the hardware and software
2. Why are functional area info systems located at the top
a. Because they relate to a specific function in the organization and are used by
organizational employees
3. Discuss classification of info systems.
a. Functional area IS – supports the activities within a specific functional area
Transaction processing system – Processes transaction data from business events
Enterprise resource planning – Integrates all functional areas of the organization
Office automation system – supports daily activi
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