Chapter 1-1

Business Intelligence, Analytics, Data Science, and AI, 5e (Sharda)
Chapter 1 An Overview of Business Intelligence, Analytics, and Data Science
1) Computerized support is used for organizational and managerial decisions that are responses
to external pressures and to take advantage of market opportunities.
Answer: TRUE
Diff: 1 Page Ref: 2
2) During the early days of analytics, data was often obtained from the domain experts using
manual processes to build mathematical or knowledge-based models.
Answer: TRUE
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 26
3) Computer applications have moved from transaction processing and monitoring activities to
problem analysis and decision support applications.
Answer: TRUE
4) Business intelligence is a specific term that describes a variety of information technology and
data capturing focused system architectures.
Answer: FALSE
5) The growth in hardware, software, and network capacities were the core contributors to the
proliferation of decision support and analytics systems.
Answer: FALSE
6) Managing data warehouses requires special methods, including parallel and cloud computing
along with Hadoop/Spark.
Answer: TRUE
7) Managing information on operations, customers, internal procedures, and employee

interactions is the domain of cognitive science.
Answer: FALSE
8) Decision support system (DSS), analytics, and management information system (MIS) have
precise definitions agreed to by most practitioners.
Answer: FALSE
9) Of all analytics types (i.e., descriptive, predictive, and prescriptive), data mining is most
closely related to predictive analytics.
Answer: TRUE
1
Copyright © 2024 Pearson Education, Inc.
10) Major commercial business intelligence (BI) products and services were well established in
the early 1970s.
Answer: FALSE
11) Information systems that support such transactions as ATM withdrawals, bank deposits, and
cash register scans at the grocery store represent online transaction processing systems (OLAP).
Answer: FALSE
12) Many business users in the 1980s referred to their mainframes as "the black hole," because
all the information went into it, but little ever came back, and ad hoc real-time querying was
virtually impossible.
Answer: TRUE
13) Data warehouses are intended to work with informational data used for online transaction
processing (OLTP) systems.
Answer: TRUE
14) Successful BI is a tool developed by and developed for the information systems department.
Answer: FALSE
15) The time between new paradigm shifts in information systems and particularly in analytics
has been getting longer.
Answer: FALSE
16) Traditional BI systems use a large volume of static data that has been extracted, cleansed,
and loaded into a data warehouse to produce reports and analyses.
Answer: TRUE
17) Demands for instant, on-demand access to dispersed information decrease as firms
successfully integrate BI into their operations.
Answer: FALSE
18) Simon's decision process involves three major phases: intelligence, design, and choice.
Answer: TRUE
2
19) The use of dashboards and data visualizations is often very effective in identifying issues and
opportunities in organizations.
Answer: TRUE
20) The use of statistics in baseball by the Oakland Athletics, as described in the Moneyball case
study, is an example of the effectiveness of data analytics.
Answer: TRUE
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 3
21) The intelligence phase of the decision process involves developing a model that represents
the underlying system.
Answer: FALSE
22) The goal of prescriptive analytics is to use data and machine learning tools to forecast the
future values of the variables of interest.
Answer: FALSE
23) Descriptive analytics is often called reporting analytics with the goal of answering the
question of "what happened."
Answer: FALSE
24) In the design phase of the human decision process, the problem or opportunity is defined
based on all available data and information.
Answer: FALSE
25) Business analytics continuum starts with predictive analytics, continues with descriptive
analytics and ends with prescriptive analytics.
Answer: FALSE
26) In the Opening Vignette on Sports Analytics, what was adjusted to drive one-time ticket
sales?
A) Player selections
B) Stadium location
C) Fan tweets
D) Ticket prices
Answer: D
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 5
3
27) In the Opening Vignette on Sports Analytics, what type of modeling was used to predict
offensive tactics?
A) Heuristics
B) Heat maps
C) Cascaded decision trees
D) Sentiment analysis
Answer: B
Diff: 3 Page Ref: 8-10
28) Computer applications have moved from transaction processing and monitoring to other
activities. Which of the following is not one of those activities?
A) Problem analysis
B) Solution applications
C) Data monitoring
D) Cloud-based technologies
Answer: C
29) Which of the following developments is not contributing to facilitating growth of decision
support and analytics?
A) Collaboration technologies
B) Data management
C) Knowledge management
D) Locally concentrated workforces
Answer: D
30) In what decade did separate information systems within the organizations begin to be
integrated?
A) 1970s
B) 1980s
C) 1990s
D) 2000s
Answer: B
31) Relational databases began to be used in which of the following time windows?
A) 1960s
B) 1970s
C) 1980s
D) 1990s
Answer: C
4
32) To address the need for more versatile reporting than what was available in 1980s era, ERP
led to the development of what type of system?
A) Management information systems
B) Relational databases
C) Executive information systems
D) Data warehouses
Answer: C
33) Which of the following is an umbrella term that combines architectures, tools, databases,
analytical tools, applications, and methodologies?
A) MIS
B) DSS
C) ERP
D) BI
Answer: D
34) The competitive imperatives for BI include all of the following, except?
A) Right information
B) Right user
C) Right time
D) Right place
Answer: B
35) Which of the following is not an example of transaction processing?

A) ATM withdrawal
B) Bank deposit
C) Sales report
D) Cash register scans
Answer: C
36) Online transaction processing (OLTP) systems handle a company's routine ongoing business.
In contrast, a data warehouse is typically used as ________.
A) The end result of BI processes and operations
B) A repository of actionable intelligence obtained from a data mart
C) A distinct system that provides storage for data that will be made use of in analysis
D) An integral subsystem of an online business transaction recording system
Answer: C
5
37) The very design that makes an OLTP system efficient for transaction processing makes it
inefficient for what?
A) End-user generated ad hoc reports, queries, and analysis
B) Transaction processing systems that constantly update operational databases
C) The collection of reliable sources of intelligence
D) Transactions such as ATM withdrawals and updating of the account balance
Answer: A
38) How are enterprise resources planning (ERP) systems related to supply chain management
systems?
A) Different terms for the same system
B) Complementary systems
C) Mutually exclusive systems
D) None of the above; these systems never interface
Answer: B
39) Which of the following is not among the systems with which BI applications are not usually
integrated?
A) Databases
B) Legacy systems
C) Enterprise systems
D) Deep learning systems
Answer: D
40) What has caused the growth of the demand for instant, on-demand access to dispersed
information?
A) The increasing divide between users who focus on the strategic level and those who are more
oriented to the tactical level
B) The need to create a database infrastructure that is always online and contains all the
information from the OLTP systems
C) The more pressing need to close the gap between the operational data and strategic objectives
D) The fact that BI cannot simply be a technical exercise for the information systems department
Answer: C
41) Today, many vendors offer diverse tools, some of which are completely preprogrammed
(called shells). How are these shells utilized?
A) They are used for customization of BI solutions
B) All a user needs to do is insert the information and data
C) The shell provides a secure environment for the organization's BI data
D) They host an enterprise data warehouse that can assist in decision making
Answer: B
6
42) What type of analytics is used to make decisions to achieve the best performance possible?
A) Descriptive
B) Prescriptive
C) Predictive
D) Domain
Answer: B
43) What type of analytics seeks to determine what is likely to happen in the future?
A) Descriptive
B) Prescriptive
C) Predictive
D) Domain
Answer: C
44) Which one of the following technologies is not directly related to Big Data?
A) Spark
B) Hadoop
C) MapReduce
D) OLAP
Answer: D
45) Which of the following is not a phase in human decision-making process?

A) Intelligence
B) Design
C) Analytics
D) Choice
Answer: C
46) Which of the following is a part of the design phase of the human decision-making process?
A) Formulate a model
B) Search and scan the procedures
C) Collect data
D) Identify the problem
Answer: C
7
47) Which of the following is not among the data collection issues in the decision-making
process?
A) Obtaining data may be expensive
B) Data may be highly structured
C) Data may be insecure
D) Data may not be accurate or precise enough
Answer: B
48) Which one of the following is the best definition of a model?

A) Model is the exact replica of the reality
B) Model is the opposite of reality
C) Model is the abstraction of reality
D) Model is the reality
Answer: C
49) Which one of the following technologies was developed after the business intelligence era?
A) Big data analytics
B) Enterprise resource planning
C) Relational database management systems
D) Data warehousing
Answer: A
50) Which one of the following technologies was developed prior to the business intelligence
era?
A) All of the other answers are true
B) Enterprise resource planning
C) Relational database management systems
D) Data warehousing
Answer: A
51) Which one of the following is not among the data engineering challenges?
A) No real-time access
B) High volumes of data
C) Lack of data governance
D) No clear boundaries in the data flows
Answer: B
8
52) Fundamental reasons for investing in BI must be ________ with the company's business
strategy.
A) Preceded
B) Contradicted
C) Competed
D) Aligned
Answer: D
53) Software instances referred to as ________ can be placed on a separate server in the network
and use event- and process-based approaches to measure and monitor operational processes.
A) Subroutines
B) Processors
C) CPUs
D) Intelligent agents
Answer: D
54) Organizations using BI systems are typically seeking to close the ________ between the
operational data and strategic objectives has become more pressing.
A) Contract
B) Deal
C) Gap
D) Agents
Answer: C
55) ________ is an umbrella term that combines architectures, tools, databases, analytical tools,
applications, and methodologies.
A) ERP
B) Business intelligence
C) Prescriptive analytics
D) Social media
Answer: B
56) A(n) ________ is a major component of a Business Intelligence system that holds source
data.
A) ERP
B) OLTP
C) Software agent
D) Data warehouse
Answer: D
9
57) A(n) ________ is a major component of a Business Intelligence system that is often browser
based and often presents a portal or dashboard.
A) Data warehouse
B) OLTP
C) User interface
D) ERP
Answer: C
58) Business ________ are now extremely compressed, faster, and more informed across
industries.
A) Problems
B) Challenges
C) Structures
D) Cycle times
Answer: D
59) The analytics type that provides estimation of the future values of variables of interest is
often called ________ analytics.
A) Descriptive
B) Predictive
C) Social
D) Automated
Answer: B
60) ________ is among the key enablers of prescriptive analytics.

A) Data mining
B) Simulation
C) Data warehousing
D) RDBM
Answer: B
61) ________ providers focus on bringing all the data stores into an enterprise-wide platform.
A) Data mining
B) Simulation modeling
C) Hardware design
D) Middleware
Answer: D
10
62) The user interface of a BI system is often referred to as a ________.
A) CRM
B) Simulation
C) Dashboard
D) Middleware
Answer: C
63) Data warehouses are intended to work with informational data used for online ________
processing systems.
A) Analytical
B) Transactional
C) Media
D) Middleware
Answer: A
64) With ________, all the data from every corner of the enterprise is collected and integrated
into a consistent schema so that every part of the organization has access to the single version of
the truth when and where needed.
A) Analytics
B) ERP
C) CRM
D) Data warehouse
Answer: B
65) As the number of potential BI applications increases, the need to justify and prioritize them
arises. This is not an easy task due to the large number of ________ benefits.
A) Analytics
B) Quantitative
C) CRM
D) Intangible
Answer: D
66) ________ analytics help managers understand what happened and help them identify
problems and opportunities.
A) Descriptive
B) Social
C) Predictive
D) Associative
Answer: A
11
67) Accurate projections of future events and outcomes is the expected results of ________
analytics.
A) Descriptive
B) Social
C) Predictive
D) Prescriptive
Answer: C
68) Well-defined business problems and opportunities is the outcome of ________ analytics.
A) Descriptive
B) Social
C) Predictive
D) Prescriptive
Answer: A
69) Predicting whether the customer is likely to switch to a competitor is often called ________
analysis.
A) Competitive
B) Collaborative
C) Social
D) Churn
Answer: D
70) Which of the following is not among the layers in PANDA platform?
A) Visual
B) Transactional
C) Analytical
D) Collaborative
Answer: D
71) List and comment on four analytics applications in the retail value chain.
Answer:
• Inventory Optimization
• Price Elasticity
• Market Basket Analysis
• Shopper Insight
• Customer Churn Analysis
• Channel Analysis
• New Store Analysis
• Store Layout
• Video Analytics
12
72) List and define the four major components of a business intelligence system.
Answer:
1. A data warehouse, with its source data
2. Business analytics, a collection of tools for manipulating, mining, and analyzing the data in
the data warehouse
3. Business performance management (BPM) for monitoring and analyzing performance
4. A user interface (e.g., a dashboard)
73) Define OLAP and OLTP. Explain the relationship between the two.
Answer: Online transaction processing (OLTP) systems handle a company's routine ongoing
business transaction, capture, storing and retrieving the relevant data often using an ERP system.
Online analytical processing (OLAP), on the other hand, is the analytics system that supports
managerial decisions by using data often stored in a data warehouse. The relationship between
the two is that OLTP captures the data and OLAP converts the data into information and
knowledge for decision support.
74) What is the intent of the analysis of data that is stored in a data warehouse?
Answer: The intent of the analysis is to give management the ability to analyze data for insights
into the business, and thus provide tactical or operational decision support whereby, for example,
line personnel can make quicker and/or more informed decisions.
75) Describe prescriptive analytics. What are the problems it solves, enablers it uses, and
outcomes it generates.
Answer: Prescriptive analytics is the highest echelon in analytics hierarchy where decisions are
made. It answers the questions of "what should I do?" and "why should I do it?" It uses
simulation, optimization, decision modeling and optimization as enablers. It produces the best
possible decision for business problems or opportunities.
76) Business applications can be programmed to act on real-time or right-time data warehousing
systems. Define and contrast these two concepts (i.e., right-time and real time); in your opinion,
which one is better, justify your answer.
Answer: Real-time DW aims to update the data continuously, to keep it fresh all the time.
Whereas right-time DW adopts a data-refreshing policy based on the needed freshness of the
data items. Although refreshing the DW continuously may sound like a better approach, it is
significantly expensive and perhaps in most cases infeasible. Right time refresh seems to be the
optimal balance between data currency and cost of DW management.
13
77) List and describe three levels or categories of analytics that are most often viewed as
sequential and independent, but also occasionally seen as overlapping.
Answer:
• Descriptive or reporting analytics refers to knowing what is happening in the organization
and understanding some underlying trends and causes of such occurrences.
• Predictive analytics aims to determine what is likely to happen in the future. This analysis is
based on statistical techniques as well as other more recently developed techniques that fall
under the general category of data mining.
• Prescriptive analytics recognizes what is going on as well as the likely forecast and makes
decisions to achieve the best performance possible.
78) List and define the phases in the human decision-making process. Provide examples for
clarity.
Answer: The Intelligence Phase: Problem (or opportunity) identification
The Design Phase: Modeling and alternative generation
The Choice Phase: Selecting the best alternatives from the available ones (involving a multi-
criteria multi-objective decision making process)
The Implementation Phase: Putting the selected solution into action, also involved change
management and user training.
79) Describe and define Big Data. Why is a search engine a Big Data application?
Answer:
• Big Data is data that cannot be stored in a single storage unit. Big Data typically refers to data
that is arriving in many different forms, be they structured, unstructured, or in a stream. Major
sources of such data are clickstreams from Web sites, postings on social media sites such as
Facebook, or data from traffic, sensors, or weather.
• A Web search engine such as Google needs to search and index billions of Web pages in order
to give you relevant search results in a fraction of a second. Although this is not done in real
time, generating an index of all the Web pages on the Internet is not an easy task.
80) List the evolution of analytics names (buzzwords) since 1970s. Why do you think the name
of analytics kept changing?
Answer: 1970s: DSS, 1980s: ERP, 1990s: EIS, 2000s: BI, 2010: Business Analytics/Big
Data/Data Science, 2020: AI/Deep Learning/Automation/Robotics. The reason for name change
is (1) to keep the field vibrant/exciting, and (2) to capture and explicitly delineate the
inclusion/enrichment of analytics methods and technologies.
14

Chapter 1-1

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Chapter 1-1

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Chapter 1-1

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Business Intelligence, Analytics, Data Science, and AI, 5e (Sharda)

Chapter 1 An Overview of Business Intelligence, Analytics, and Data Science

7) Managing information on operations, customers, internal procedures, and employee

35) Which of the following is not an example of transaction processing?

45) Which of the following is not a phase in human decision-making process?

48) Which one of the following is the best definition of a model?

60) ________ is among the key enablers of prescriptive analytics.

You might also like