AIS Final

system

detailed methods, procedures, and routines that carry out activities, perform a duty, achieve goals or objectives, or solve problems

data

facts that are collected, recorded, stored, and processed by an information system

information

data that have been organized and processed to provide meaning and improve decision making

value of information

the benefit provided by information minus the cost of producing it

information system

the people and technologies in an organization that produce information

business process

set of related, coordinated, and structured activities and tasks, performed by a person, a computer, or a machine, that helps accomplish a specific organizational tool

give-get exchange

transactions that happen a great many times, such as giving up cash to get inventory from a supplier and giving employees a paycheck in exchange for their labor

revenue cycle

activities associated with selling goods and services in exchange for cash or a future promise to receive cash

expenditure cycle

activities associated with purchasing inventory for resale or raw materials in exchange for cash or a future promise to pay cash

production cycle

activities associated with using labor, raw materials, and equipment to produce finished goods

human resources/payroll cycle

activities associated with hiring, training, compensating, evaluating, promoting, and terminating employees

financing cycle

activities associated with raising money by selling shares in the company to investors and borrowing money as well as paying dividends and interest

data analytics

use of software and algorithms to find and solve problems and improve business performance

data dashboard

display of important data points, metrics, and key performance indicators in easily understood line or bar charts, tables, or gauges

blockchain

individual digital records, called blocks, linked together using cryptography in a single list, called a chain

virtualization

running multiple systems simultaneously on one physical computer

cloud computing

using a browser to remotely access software, data storage, hardware, and applications

Internet of Things (IoT)

embedding sensors in devices so they can connect to the internet

value chain

linking all primary and support activities in a business, value is added as a product passes through the chain

primary activities

value chain activities that produce, market, and deliver products and services to customers and provide post-delivery service and support

support activities

value chain activities such as firm infrastructure, technology, purchasing, and human resources that enable primary activities to be performed efficiently and effectively

data processing cycle

four operations (data input, data storage, data processing, and information output) performed on data dto generate meaningful and relevant information

Data Input

data must be collected about: each activity, resources affected by each activity, people who participate in each activity

source documents

documents used to capture transaction data at its source - when transaction takes place

turnaround documents

records of company data sent to an external party and then returned to system as input

source data automation

collection of transaction data in machine-readable form at the time and place of origin (ex: ATMs)

general ledger

ledger that contains summary-level data for every asset, liability, equity, revenue, and expense account of the organization

subsidiary ledger

ledger used to record detailed data for a general ledger account with many individual subaccounts (ex: A/R, A/P, inventory)

coding

systematic assignment of numbers or letters to items to classify and organize them

sequence codes

items numbered consecutively so that gaps in sequence code indicate missing items that should be investigated

block code

blocks of numbers reserved for specific categories of data, thereby helping to organize the data

group codes

two or more subgroups of digits used to code an item, a group code is often used in conjunction with block code

mnemonic codes

letters and numbers interspersed to identify an item

chart of accounts

listing of all number assigned to balance sheet and income statement accounts; account numbers allow transaction data to be coded, classified, and entered into proper accounts

entity

item about which info is stored in a record

field

portion of a data record where data value for a particular attribute is stored; each cell in a spreadsheet is a field

record

a set of fields who data values describe specific attributes of an entity; a row in a spreadsheet is a record

data value

actual value stored in a field; describes a particular attribute of an entity

file

a set of logically related records, such as payroll records of all employees

master file

permanent file of records that stores cumulative data about an organization

data processing activities

creating, reading, updating, deleting

batch processing

accumulating transaction records into groups or batches for processing at a regular interval such as daily or weekly

real-time processing

computer system processes data immediately after capture and provides updated information to users on a timely basis

query

request for database to provide info needed to deal with a problem or answer a question; info is retrieved, displayed or printed, and analyzed as requested

ERP

systems that integrate all aspects of an organization’s activities (accounting, finance, marketing, HR, manufacturing, inventory) into one system

business process diagrams

graphical descriptions of the business processes used by a company

document flowchart

shows the flow of documents and information between departments or areas of responsibility

system flowchart

shows the relationship among the input, processing, and output in an info system

program flowchart

shows the sequence of logical operations a computer performs as it executes a program

data flow diagram

graphical description of data sources, data flows, transformation processes, data storage, and data destinations

internal control flowchart

used to describe, analyze, and evaluate internal controls, including identifying system strengths, weaknesses, and inefficiencies

data store

place or medium where system data is stored

context diagram

highest-level data flow diagram (DFD); a summary-level view of a system

database

a set of interrelated, centrally coordinated data tables stored electronically with as little data redundancy as possible

data warehouse

very large databases containing detailed and summarized data for a number of years used for analysis rather than transaction processing

data mining

using sophisticated statistical analysis to “discover” hypothesized relationships in the data

record layout

document that shows the items stored in a file, including the order and length of the data fields and the type of data stored

schema

a description of the data elements in a database, the relationships among them, and the logical model used to organize and describe the data

external-level schema

an individual user’s view of portions of a database; also called a subschema

data dictionary

info about the structure of the database, including a description of each data element

structured query language (SQL)

standardized commercial programming language designed for managing data in relational database systems

data definition language (DDL)

DBMS language that builds the data dictionary, creates the database, describes logical views, and specifies record or field security constraints

data manipulation language (DML)

DBMS language that changes database content, including data elements creations, updates, insertions, and deletions

data query language (DQL)

high-level, english-like, DBMS language that contains powerful, easy-to-use commands that enable users to retrieve, sort, order, and display data

tuple

a row in a table that contains data about a specific item in a database table

primary key

database attribute, or combo of attributes, that uniquely identifies each row in a table

foreign key

an attribute in a table that is also a primary key in another table; used to link the two tables

relational database

a database built using the relational data model

normalization

following relational database creation rules to design a relational database that is free from delete, insert, and update anomalies

semantic data modeling

using knowledge of business processes and information needs to create a diagram that shows what to include in a fully normalized database

big data

data sets characterized by huge amounts (volume) of frequently updated data (velocity) in various formats (variety), for which the quality may be suspect (veracity)

data volume

the amount of data created and stored by an organization

data velocity

the pace at which data is created and stored

data variety

the different forms data can take

data veracity

the quality or trustworthiness of data

ETL process

set of procedures for blending data; EXTRACT, TRANSFORM, LOAD data

structured data

data that is highly organized and fits into fixed fields

unstructured data

data that has no uniform structure

data marts

data repositories that hold structured data for a subset of an organization

data lake

collection of structured, semi-structured, and unstructured data stored in a single location

dark data

info the organization has collected and stored that would be useful but is not analyzed and is thus generally ignored

data swamps

data repositories that are not accurately documented so that the stored data cannot be properly identified and analyzed

metadata

data that describes other data

flat file

text file that contains data from multiple tables or sources and merges that data into a singe row

delimiter

character, or series of characters, that marks the end of one field and the beginning of the next field

text qualifier

two characters that indicate the beginning and ending of a filed and tell the program to ignore and delimiters contained between the characters

descriptive analytics

information that results from the examination of data to understand the past, answers the question “what happened?”

diagnostic analytics

information that attempts to determine causal relationships, answers “why did this happen?”

predictive analytics

focus on predicting the future, answers “what might happen in the future?”

prescriptive analytics

provide recommendation of what should happen, answers “what should be done?”

data dashboard

display of important data points, metrics, and key performance indicators in easily understood data visualizations

automation

application of machines to automatically perform a task once performed by humans

bot

autonomous computer program designed to perform a specific task

aggregate data

presentation of data in a summarized

data pivoting

a technique that rotates data from rows to columns

data standardization

process of standardizing the structure and meaning of each data element so it can be analyzed and used in decision making

data parsing

separating data from a single field into multiple fields

data concatenation

combining of data from two or more fields into a single field

cryptic data values

data items that have no meaning without understanding a coding schema

misfielded data values

data values that are correctly formatted but not listed in the correct field