Chapter One (Review Questions)

1. What does the word processing in data processing mean?

2. Give three examples in which raw data also serves as useful information.
3. Give three business examples (not mentioned in the text) of data that must be
processed to provide useful information.
4. Give three examples of subsystems not operating in the context of IT. Why are these
considered subsystems and not systems?
5. How do TPSs and DSSs differ?
6. What is a problem? Give an example of a business problem and discuss how a
computer-based information system could solve it.
7. What is synergy? How is synergy accomplished when a person uses a computer?
Explain the connection between synergy and increased productivity.
8. An information system consists of hardware and software. Why is this statement
inadequate?
9. In which situations does one need to make a decision? Give three examples not
mentioned in the chapter.
10. How can a DSS help make decisions?
11. Note the word support in decision support systems. Why are these applications not
called decision-making systems?
12. Who is considered a knowledge worker? Will you have a career as a knowledge worker?
Explain.
13. What is the most prevalent type of information system? Why is this type of IS so
ubiquitous?
14. TPSs are usually used at the boundaries of the organization. What are boundaries in this
context? Give three examples of boundaries.
15. Among IT professionals, the greatest demand is for network administrators and analysts.
Why?
16. No longer the domain of technical personnel, information systems are the business of
every professional. Why?
17. Assume that computers can recognize voices easily and detect their users exact
meaning when talking. Will the necessity for written language be reduced to zero? Why
or why not?
18. Information systems cannot solve some business problems. Give three examples and
explain why technology cannot help.
19. Practically all knowledge workers must know how to use information systems. Why?
20. Often, computer illiteracy is likened to reading illiteracy. Is this realistic? Is computer
illiteracy as severe a handicap as reading illiteracy? (Note that computer literacy refers
not only to the ability to use a computer, but also to the ability to use software
applications, find information on the Web, and share information and files through the
Internet.)
21. Think of two examples of fully Web-based businesses. What made the Web so attractive
for these entrepreneurs?
22. We will soon stop talking of e-commerce and simply speak of commerce. Why?
23. Help wanted advertisements do not use the term computer specialists; rather, they use
the term information system professionals or information technology professionals.
Why?

24. How do traditional commerce and Web-based commerce differ? What aspects of
traditional shopping do you prefer over online shopping?
25. What changed the average citizens life more, the industrial revolution or the information
revolution? How and why?
26. Information technology might bring people together, but it also isolates them. Explain the
latter claim and give an example.
27. Give two examples of phenomena that are a social concern because of information
technology. Explain.
28. What irritates you about the Web? What would you do to minimize this irritation?
29. Do you foresee an IT-related societal or ethical concern that is not a current concern?
Explain.
30. If you chose a career in IT apart from CIO or CTO, which position would you choose,
and why?
31. Identity theft existed before the advent of the Internet. However, increased identity theft
is one of the unintended, undesirable results of using the Internet. What is the role of
educating the public in containing this crime?
Chapter Two
1. In what respect does business strategy resemble military strategy?
2. Refer to Chapter 1s discussion of different types of information systems. Which types of
ISs can gain strategic advantage and which cannot? Why?
3. What should an information system achieve for an organization in order to be considered
a strategic information system?
4. What strategic goal can an IS attain that does not involve wresting market share from
competitors?
5. What conditions must exist in an organization planning an SIS?
6. Sometimes it is difficult to convince top management to commit funds to develop and
implement an SIS. Why?
7. An SIS often offers a corporation short-lived advantages. How so?
8. What is reengineering? Why is reengineering often mentioned along with IT?
9. Why have most reengineering projects failed? What has eventually affected
reengineering in some companies?
10. Software developers have made great efforts to create a standard. What does creating
a standard mean in the software industry, and why are companies doing it?
11. What should an organization do to sustain the strategic benefits of an IS?
12. Adobe encourages PC users to download its Acrobat Reader and Flash Player free of
charge. How does this eventually help Adobe strategically? If they give the application
away, how does their generosity help them make money?
13. Referring to the list of strategic moves (see Figure 2.2), classify the initiatives of JetBlue.
14. What were the reasons for the failure of the original purpose of FordDirect.com? Who
eventually gained from the system and what were the gains?
15. The executives of well-established airlines are not less smart than those at JetBlue, and
yet, their larger airlines have not done what JetBlue has done. Why?
16. What does the term first mover mean?
17. Can a late mover have any strategic advantage with IT? What is the risk that a late
mover takes?
18. What does the term bleeding edge mean?
19. Can an off-the-shelf computer program be used as an SIS? Why or why not?

20. The organizations that eventually use the systems, not consulting firms that try to help
organizations, develop more successful SISs. What might be the reasons for this?
21. You head a small company. You have an idea for software that can give your company
an advantage over competitors. Since you do not have a staff that can develop and
implement the software, you decide to approach a software company. Other than the
companys technical offerings, what additional company aspects are desirable?
22. Some argue that an SIS gives a company an unfair advantage and might even cause
the demise of smaller, weaker companies that cannot afford to build similar systems. Is
this good or bad for customers? Explain your opinion.
23. Why has the Web been the arena of so much competition in recent years?
24. Information systems play a major role in almost every reengineering project. Why?
25. Accounting and payroll ISs have never become SISs. Why? What other types of ISs are
unlikely to ever provide strategic advantage for their owners?
26. Fords CEO envisioned a future in which consumers log on to an automakers Web site,
design their cars online, wait for the cars to be manufactured (design transformed into
electronic blueprints), and have the car delivered to their door. Do you think we will see
this in practice within the next decade? Why, or why not?
27. Give two examples of other products or services whose delivery time could be cut from
days to minutes with the aid of IT.
28. What is the role of ISs in alliances such as airlines and credit-card issuers? Why would
such alliances be practically infeasible without IT?
29. JetBlue used new software that had not been tested by other companies. If you were a
CIO, would you use software that is still in beta (untested with live data) in your
organization?
30. You are an executive for a large organization that provides services to state and federal
agencies. A software development firm approached you with an offer to implement new
software that might give your organization a strategic advantage by reducing the service
delivery cycle by several days. What would you do to avoid putting your organization on
the bleeding edge while still considering the new software?
31. When a software developer creates a de facto standard (i.e., not the official standard,
but something so widely used that it becomes a standard), it has monopolistic power.
Should governments intervene to prevent this practice? Explain your opinion.
32. Suppose you are a venture capitalist considering a proposal to invest millions of dollars
in a new online business. What questions would you ask the enthusiastic young people
who have approached you for funds?
33. What are the potential risks of a single organization controlling much of the market for
essential software?
Chapter Three
1. What is a supply chain? What is the purpose of supply chain management systems?
2. What is the purpose of cost accounting ISs?
3. What is the relationship between CAD and CAM systems?
4. What are the concerns in cash management, and how do cash management ISs help
financial managers?
5. What is time to market? How have ISs affected time to market?
6. In brief, what is the purpose of customer relationship management systems?
7. What are the typical components of ERP systems?

8. Although technologically the full linking of the SCM systems of suppliers and buyers is
feasible, many buyers are reluctant to do so. Why?
9. Why do the ERP installation and testing of systems require that experts be involved?
Why does the implementation of so many ERP systems face severe challenges or totally
fail?
10. What is EOQ? Which two problems do ISs that calculate EOQ help minimize?
11. What is JIT? How do MRP and MRP II systems help achieve JIT?
12. For the human resource managers of some organizations the entire Web is a database
of job candidates. How so?
13. What information technologies play a crucial role in marketing?
14. Many sales reps have no offices, yet they have access to huge resources, and their
productivity is great. Explain how that is possible.
15. What is RFID, and what role does it play in SCM?
16. In the supply chain, shipping software helps mainly in two ways. What are they?
17. You established a small shop that manufactures a single product that you sell by mail.
You purchase raw materials from several vendors and employ five full-time employees.
For which business functions would you certainly use software?
18. Which of the ISs you listed for Question 17 would you link to each other, and for what
purpose?
19. Why is it so important to have a quick response of online investment ISs? Give two
examples of how such systems are critical.
20. Some experts say that ISs have great potential in manufacturing. Explain why. (Hint:
Consider business process reengineering.)
21. Over the past decade, banks and investment firms have offered many services that
would be impossible without ISs. Describe three such services and explain how IT
makes them possible.
22. CAD systems replace older, manual tools in engineering, but they also contribute by
maintaining all information in electronic form. How does this facilitate the work of drafts
people and engineers? How do such systems help the transition from engineering a
product to manufacturing it?
23. ISs in both the manufacturing and service sectors often help to optimize. Give two
examples of what they optimize.
24. The Web has significantly cut the cost of collecting data about shoppers and buyers.
Explain how.
25. Sellers of consumer products argue that targeted marketing serves not only them but
also their consumers. How so?
26. If you had to evaluate your own subordinates, would you prefer to evaluate them in
written, open-ended form, or would you prefer to use employee evaluation software?
Why?
27. As an employee, would you prefer that your supervisor evaluate you with the aid of
employee evaluation software or without it? Why?
Chapter Four
1. You have decided to buy parts and build your own personal computer. At the minimum,
what are the components that you would need for this device to be considered a
computer?
2. Modern CPUs contain cores. What is a core?

3. Multicore CPUs facilitate multithreading. What is multithreading?

4. Most people never get to see a supercomputer, let alone use one. Why? What are the
most frequent uses of this type of computer?
5. Why are computers designed to work in binary form rather than by using multiple-value
signals? Try to use the analogy of colors to explain your answer.
6. News about the death of mainframe computers has been greatly exaggerated. Explain.
7. IT professionals often speak of the merging of technologies. Think of handheld
computers and cell phones. Give an example of such merging.
8. When a computer is offered for sale, one of its advertised characteristics is something
such as 4 GHz. What does this mean, and what does it measure?
9. Why are computers said to be processing data digitally?
10. What is the difference between volatile and nonvolatile memory? Give one example of
volatile memory and one example of nonvolatile memory.
11. What are the main qualities to look for in an LCD monitor?
12. Among the external storage devices discussed in this chapter, all but one store data on
the surface of some material, and one in circuitry. Which one stores data in circuitry?
13. What is DVD technology? How does it differ from CD technology?
14. What does footprint mean in hardware? When is a footprint important in the office?
15. What are the most important features to consider before purchasing a PC?
16. On a continental tour, a traveling salesperson makes software-based presentations at
every place he stops. He has ensured that there is a PC and projecting equipment at
every site he visits. Occasionally, he needs to change the content of his presentation. He
wants to carry as small a storage device as possible. What data storage device would
you recommend he carry?
17. Computers fail significantly less frequently than copy machines and printers. Why?
18. Comment on this statement: large computers, such as mainframes and supercomputers,
have no future.
19. Because information technology advances so rapidly, professionals find it difficult to
make informed decisions regarding computer and peripheral equipment purchases.
What factors cause this difficulty?
20. End users role in making hardware purchasing decisions is growing. Analyze the
technological and operational reasons for this trend.
21. Would you replace a PC with a handheld computer for your studies or work? Why or why
not?
22. Which storage medium would you use in each of the following situations: (1) airline
reservations system, (2) information on employee benefits and professional conduct,
and (3) online answers to customers frequently asked questions (FAQs)? Explain your
choices.