

PRESSBOOKS Information Systems for Business and Beyond

ANSWERS TO STUDY QUESTIONS

Chapter 1

Table of 
Contents

1. What are the five components that make up an information system?

a. hardware, software, data, people, process

2. What are three examples of information system hardware?

a. There are a number of possible answers: a PC, a printer, a mouse, tablets, mobile phones, etc.

3. Microsoft Windows is an example of which component of information systems?

a. It is an operating system, which is a part of the software component.

4. What is application software?

a. Software that does something useful.

5. What roles do people play in information systems?

a. The text includes examples such as helpdesk support, systems analyst, programmer, and CIO.

6. What is the definition of a process?

a. A process is a series of steps undertaken to achieve a desired outcome or goal.

7. What was invented first, the personal computer or the Internet (ARPANET)?

a. The Internet was activated in 1969; the personal computer was introduced in 1975.

8. In what year were restrictions on commercial use of the Internet first lifted? When were eBay and Amazon founded?

a. Restrictions were lifted in 1991, Amazon was founded in 1994, and eBay was founded in 1995.

9. What does it mean to say we are in a “post-PC world”?

a. The personal computer will no longer be the primary way that people interact and do business.

10. What is Carr’s main argument about information technology?

a. That information technology is just a commodity and cannot be used to gain a competitive advantage.

Chapter 2
 a. Answers will vary, but should say something about information systems hardware consisting of the physical parts
of computing devices that can actually be touched.

2. What is the impact of Moore’s Law on the various hardware components described in this chapter?

a. The student should pick one of the components and discuss the impact of the fact that computing doubles in speed 
every two years. Most devices are getting smaller, faster, cheaper, and this should be indicated in the answer.

3. Write a summary of one of the items linked to in the “Integrated Computing” section.

a. The student should write a summary of one of the linked articles.

4. Explain why the personal computer is now considered a commodity.

a. The PC has become a commodity in the sense that there is very little differentiation between computers, and the
 primary factor that controls their sale is their price.

5. The CPU can also be thought of as the _____________ of the computer.

a. brain

6. List the following in increasing order (slowest to fastest): megahertz, kilohertz, gigahertz.

a. kilohertz, megahertz, gigahertz 

7. What is the bus of a computer?

a. The bus is the electrical connection between different computer components.

8. Name two differences between RAM and a hard disk.

a. RAM is volatile; the hard disk is non-volatile. Data access in RAM is faster than on the hard disk.

9. What are the advantages of solid-state drives over hard disks?

a. The main advantage is speed: an SSD has much faster data-access speeds than a traditional hard disk.

10. How heavy was the first commercially successful portable computer?

a. The Compaq PC was 28 pounds.

Chapter 3

1. Come up with your own definition of software. Explain the key terms in your definition.

a. A variety of answers are possible, but should be similar to the definition in the text: Software is the set of  
instructions that tell the hardware what to do. Software is created through the process of programming.

2. What are the functions of the operating system?

a. The operating system manages the hardware resources of the computer, provides the user-interface components,
and provides a platform for software developers to write applications.

3. Which of the following are operating systems and which are applications: Microsoft Excel, Google Chrome, iTunes,
 a. Microsoft Excel (application), Google Chrome (application), iTunes (application), WIndows (operating system),
 Android (operating system), Angry Birds (application)

4. What is your favorite software application? What tasks does it help you accomplish?

a. Students will have various answers to this question. They should pick an application, not an operating system.
They should be able to list at least one thing that it helps them accomplish.

5. What is a “killer” app? What was the killer app for the PC?

a. A killer app is application software that is so useful that people will purchase the hardware just so they can run
it. The killer app for the PC was the spreadsheet (Visicalc).

6. How would you categorize the software that runs on mobile devices? Break down these apps into at least three basic
categories and give an example of each.

a. There are various ways to answer this question. Students should identify that there are mobile operating systems
and mobile apps. Most likely, students will break down mobile apps into multiple categories: games, GPS, reading,
communication, etc.

7. Explain what an ERP system does.

a. An ERP (enterprise resource planning) system is a software application with a centralized database that is
implemented across the entire organization.

8. What is open-source software? How does it differ from closed-source software? Give an example of each.

a. Open-source software is software that makes the source code available for anyone to copy and use. It is free to
download, copy, and distribute. Closed-source software does not make the source code available and generally is
not free to download, copy, and distribute. There are many examples of both, such as: Firefox (open source), Linux
(open source), iTunes (closed source), Microsoft Office (closed source).

9. What does a software license grant?

a. Software licenses are not all the same, but generally they grant the user the right to use the software on a limited 
basis. The terms of the license dictate users’ rights in detail.

10. How did the Y2K (year 2000) problem affect the sales of ERP systems?

a. Organizations purchased ERP software to replace their older systems in order to avoid any problems with the
 year 2000 in their software.

Chapter 4

1. What is the difference between data, information, and knowledge?

a. Data are the raw bits and pieces of facts and statistics with no context. Data can be quantitative or qualitative.
 Information is data that has been given context. Knowledge is information that has been aggregated and analyzed 
and can be used for making decisions.

2. Explain in your own words how the data component relates to the hardware and software components of information
 a. There are numerous answers to this question, but all should be variations on the following: Data is processed by
the hardware via software. A database is software that runs on the hardware. Hardware stores the data, software
 processes the data.

3. What is the difference between quantitative data and qualitative data? In what situations could the number 42 be
considered qualitative data?

a. Quantitative data is numeric, the result of a measurement, count, or some other mathematical calculation.
Qualitative data is descriptive. The number 42 could be qualitative if it is a designation instead of a measurement,
count, or calculation. For example: that player’s jersey has number 42 on it.

4. What are the characteristics of a relational database?

a. A relational database is one in which data is organized into one or more tables. Each table has a set of fields,
which define the nature of the data stored in the table. A record is one instance of a set of fields in a table. All the
tables are related by one or more fields in common.

5. When would using a personal DBMS make sense?

a. When working on a smaller database for personal use, or when disconnected from the network.

6. What is the difference between a spreadsheet and a database? List three differences between them.

a. A database is generally more powerful and complex than a spreadsheet, with the ability to handle multiple types
of data and link them together. Some differences: A database has defined field types, a spreadsheet does not. A
database uses a standardized query language (such as SQL), a spreadsheet does not. A database can hold much
larger amounts of data than a spreadsheet.

7. Describe what the term normalization means.

a. To normalize a database means to design it in a way that: 1) reduces duplication of data between tables and 2)
 gives the table as much flexibility as possible.

8. Why is it important to define the data type of a field when designing a relational database?

a. A data type tells the database what functions can be performed with the data. The second important reason to
define the data type is so that the proper amount of storage space is allocated for the data.

9. Name a database you interact with frequently. What would some of the field names be?

a. The student can choose any sort of system that they interact with, such as Amazon or their school’s online
 systems. The fields would be the names of data being collected, such as “first name”, or “address”.

10. What is metadata?

a. Metadata is data about data. It refers to the data used to describe other data, such as the length of a song in
iTunes, which describes the music file.

11. Name three advantages of using a data warehouse.

a. The text lists the following (the student should pick at least three of these):

i. The process of developing a data warehouse forces an organization to better understand the data that it is
currently collecting and, equally important, what data is not being collected.
 iii. Once all data is identified as consistent, an organization can generate one version of the truth. This is
important when the company wants to report consistent statistics about itself, such as revenue or number of  
employees.

iv. By having a data warehouse, snapshots of data can be taken over time. This creates a historical record of  
data, which allows for an analysis of trends.

v. A data warehouse provides tools to combine data, which can provide new information and analysis.

12. What is data mining?

a. Data mining is the process of analyzing data to find previously unknown trends, patterns, and associations in
order to make decisions.

Chapter 5

1. What were the first four locations hooked up to the Internet (ARPANET)?

a. UCLA, Stanford, MIT, and the University of Utah

2. What does the term packet   mean?

a. The fundamental unit of data transmitted over the Internet. Each packet has the sender’s address, the destination
address, a sequence number, and a piece of the overall message to be sent.

3. Which came first, the Internet or the World Wide Web?

a. the Internet 

4. What was revolutionary about Web 2.0?

a. Anyone could post content to the web, without the need for understanding HTML or web-server technology.

5. What was the so-called killer app for the Internet?

a. electronic mail (e-mail)

6. What makes a connection a broadband  connection?

a. A broadband connection is defined as one that has speeds of at least 256,000 bps.

7. What does the term VoIP mean?

a. Voice over Internet protocol – a way to have voice conversations over the Internet.

8. What is an LAN?

a. An LAN is a local network, usually operating in the same building or on the same campus.

9. What is the difference between an intranet and an extranet?

a. An intranet consists of the set of web pages and resources available on a company’s internal network. These
items are not available to those outside of the company. An extranet is a part of the company’s network that is made
  public disclosure of the invention when the patent is granted.” You obtain a patent by filing an application with the
 patent office. A patent will be granted if the work is deemed to be original, useful, and non-obvious.

7. What does a trademark protect? How do you obtain one?

a. A trademark protects a word, phrase, logo, shape, or sound that identifies a source of goods or services. You can
obtain one by registering with the Patent and Trademark Office (US). There is also a common-law trademark.

8. What does the term personally identifiable information mean?

a. Information about a person that can be used to uniquely establish that person’s identity is called personally
identifiable information, or PII.

9. What protections are provided by HIPAA, COPPA, and FERPA?

a. The answers are as follows:

i. HIPAA: protects records related to health care as a special class of personally identifiable information.

ii. COPPA: protects information collected from children under the age of thirteen.

iii. FERPA: protects student educational records.

10. How would you explain the concept of NORA?

a. There are various ways to answer this. The basic answer is that NORA (non-obvious relationship awareness) is
the process of collecting large quantities of a variety of information and then combining it to create profiles of  
individuals.

Chapter 13

1. Which countries are the biggest users of the Internet? Social media? Mobile?

a. Students will need to look outside the text for this, as it changes all the time. There are also different ways of  
measurement: number of users, % of population, most active users, etc. Some good sites to use are Internet World 
Stats, Kissmetrics, and the World Bank.

2. Which country had the largest Internet growth (in %) between 2008 and 2012?

a. Iran, at 205%

3. How will most people connect to the Internet in the future?

a. via mobile devices

4. What are two different applications of wearable technologies?

a. There are many answers to this question; two examples are Google Glass and Jawbone UP.

5. What are two different applications of collaborative technologies?

a. There are many answers to this; two examples are software that routes us to our destination in the shortest 
amount of time, and websites that review different companies.
 a. Using 3-D printers, designers can quickly test prototypes or build something as a proof of concept. Printable
technologies also make it possible to bring manufacturing to the desktop computer.

7. How will advances in wireless technologies and sensors make objects “findable”?

a. Advances in wireless technologies and sensors will allow physical objects to send and receive data about 
themselves.

8. What is enhanced situational awareness?

a. Data from large numbers of sensors can give decision makers a heightened awareness of real-time events,
 particularly when the sensors are used with advanced display or visualization technologies.

9. What is a nanobot?

a. A nanobot is a robot whose components are on the scale of about a nanometer.

10. What is a UAV?

a. An unmanned aerial vehicle – a small airplane or helicopter that can fly without a pilot. UAVs are run by
computer or remote control.

Pressbooks.com: Simple Book Production