K201 Exam 1

Data are raw, unorganized facts and figures without inherent meaning.

Information is data that has been organized, structured, or processed to provide context, meaning, and usefulness for decision-making.

What is the primary difference between data and information?

Knowledge

______ is what you get when you combine information with experience, context, and judgment to draw conclusions or make decisions.

Sociotechnical

Information systems are best understood as ______ systems, meaning that social elements (people, processes) and technical elements (hardware, software, data) are interdependent and must work together.

People, Processes, Data, and Technology

Using the PPT (People Process Technology) framework expanded in Chapter 3, what are the four essential components of an information system?

Transaction Processing Systems (TPS)

Information systems that handle routine, repeatable operational tasks such as scanning barcodes at checkout, paying employees, and managing inventory.

Decision Support System (DSS)

An interactive system that helps managers analyze data, compare alternatives, and evaluate possible outcomes under different assumptions without replacing managerial judgment.

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)

Large, integrated platforms that link accounting, human resources, sales, and manufacturing across the entire organization into a single database.

A network effect occurs when a system becomes more valuable as more people use it. This can create high barriers to entry for competitors because users have more reason to stay with the current system as its user base grows.

Briefly explain how a “network effect” can create a competitive advantage for an information system.

Problem

Before a team can build, buy, or automate a system, they must first clearly define the underlying business ______ rather than just reacting to an obvious symptom.

Business Requirement

A clear, testable statement of what a system must accomplish or support so the organization can achieve a business purpose.

Different stakeholders have different needs. If you ignore end users, you can miss important workflows, causing errors, frustration, and manual workarounds.

Why is it critical to gather requirements from multiple stakeholder groups, such as daily users and warehouse staff, rather than just executives and managers?

Testing

In the System Development Lifecycle (SDLC), the ______ phase is where the team gathers verifiable evidence that the system behaves correctly under specific conditions prior to deployment.

A normal use case tests what should happen in a normal situation.

An edge case tests unusual or extreme situations that could cause problems.

When evaluating and testing a system, what is the key difference between a normal use case and an edge case?

Acceptance

The “Given / When / Then” format is a structured, verifiable pattern used for writing ______ tests that anyone can execute and evaluate.

Buy, Configure, or Build.

What are the three primary paths an organization can take when acquiring a software solution?

It could solve the wrong problem, not support important user needs, or have low adoption. Employees might end up going back to spreadsheets and other workarounds.

Why might a systems project that finishes on schedule, within budget, and without technical defects still be considered an organizational failure?

Waterfall

The traditional, linear development approach where a team completely finishes one major stage before moving to the next is called ______.

Agile approaches

Shorten feedback loops by having teams work in smaller increments, gather stakeholder feedback frequently, and adapt as they learn.

Scrum

A way for a team to break work into short periods and work on it step by step. The team checks its progress regularly and decides what to work on next.

DevOps

The practice of connecting development, release, operations, monitoring, and ongoing support to bridge the gap between software creators and operators is known as ______.

Vibe coding

Creating software primarily by describing what to build in natural language and letting AI generate much of the code is referred to as ______.

Prototypes are meant to test ideas and get feedback, not to be used as the final system. They may not have enough security, data checks, error handling, or support to work reliably long term.long-term

Why is it dangerous to treat an AI generated or low code prototype as a finished, production ready system?

The request should be flagged as potential scope creep and subjected to impact analysis to determine whether a genuine business objective justifies changing the project's scope, timeline, and cost.

In the context of requirements traceability, what should a team do when a stakeholder requests a new feature that cannot be linked to any documented business objective?

Production

Error rates, customer complaints, adoption numbers, and support tickets are examples of ______ signals that managers monitor after launch to determine whether a system is delivering value.

Enterprise Information System (EIS)

Software designed to support and integrate the core business processes of an entire organization across multiple functions and locations is called an ______ System.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

A ______ system helps an organization manage customer interactions, track sales pipelines, automate marketing, and log support tickets in a central database.

Supply Chain Management (SCM)

Coordinates the flow of raw materials, demand forecasting, production scheduling, warehouse inventory, and supplier logistics.

During widespread supply disruptions, companies with these advanced systems can detect shortages early, locate alternative suppliers, and reroute shipments.

Silo

When business data is trapped within an isolated departmental system and cannot easily flow to other functions, it creates an information ______.

Any two of these:
Data inconsistency/errors
Wasted time on manual data re-entry
Lack of enterprise-wide visibility
Poor customer service
Higher IT maintenance costs
Compliance/audit failures

Name two major operational or strategic consequences a business faces when departments operate within disconnected information silos.

A flowchart shows the steps a person or role takes to complete a process.

A systems map shows how data moves between different systems, databases, and departments.

What is the fundamental difference between a flowchart and a systems map?

Best of breed

When a company chooses the top rated standalone software package for each individual department, such as best CRM plus best SCM, rather than an all in one suite, it is using a ______ strategy.

Transaction

When a sales order automatically updates inventory, alerts shipping, and creates an invoice, it shows that shared enterprise ________ data can be used by multiple departments at the same time.

The business risks overselling and failing to fulfill customer commitments because departments are using conflicting, uncoordinated records.

If the sales system indicates that 25 units of a product are available, but operations has already allocated 20 of those units to another customer, what risk does the business face?

Duplicate or Data Inconsistency / Quality

A customer having three conflicting profiles, one with an old address, one with a current address, and one missing contact details, illustrates a data ______ issue.

An error can spread quickly to other systems. For example, wrong inventory or customer data can affect the CRM, SCM, ERP, and company dashboards.

While enterprise system integration speeds up the flow of accurate data, what risk does it create regarding bad data or process errors?

Student Information System (SIS)

In a university systems ecosystem, when a student registers for a course, the ______ system checks prerequisites, holds the seat, and sends data to the learning management system and billing office.

What If

When a manager adjusts growth assumptions in a decision support model to project inventory and revenue at 10% vs. 20% demand growth, they are performing ______ analysis.

Operations receives the approved order so they can fulfill it by getting the product ready, packaging it, and shipping it to the customer before billing is completed.

In an integrated order to cash process, why does operations/fulfillment typically receive the transaction immediately after sales approves the order?