BA3310 Comprehensive Information Systems and Technology Review

Vocabulary flashcards covering core concepts in business information systems, analytics, enterprise infrastructure, IT hardware, networking, databases, and data mining.

Data

Raw facts describing an event or object.

Information

Data placed in a meaningful, useful context.

Business Intelligence (BI)

Information from many sources analyzed for patterns, trends, and relationships to support strategic decisions.

Knowledge

Skills, experience, and expertise combined with information and intelligence.

The 4 Vs of Big Data

Variety, veracity, volume, and velocity.

Structured Data

Data with a defined length, type, and format.

Unstructured Data

Data with no specified format, such as images, video, social media, text messages, voicemail, and email.

Internet of Things (IoT)

Internet-enabled devices that collect and share data without human intervention.

Descriptive Analytics

Analytics that answer 'What happened?' using examples such as charts of past sales.

Diagnostic Analytics

Analytics that answer 'Why did it happen?' such as investigating why sales rose or fell.

Predictive Analytics

Analytics that answer 'What will happen?' by using past data to forecast future outcomes.

Prescriptive Analytics

Analytics that answer 'What should we do?' by recommending an action, such as the best airline pricing.

Data Silo

A situation in which one business unit cannot freely communicate with other units.

Data Democratization

The practice where data are collected, analyzed, and made accessible to all users so departments can work interdependently.

Systems Thinking

Monitoring a whole system by considering inputs, processes, outputs, and feedback.

Management Information Systems (MIS)

A business function that moves information about people, products, and processes across a company to support decisions and problem solving.

Chief Information Officer (CIO)

Executive who ensures strategic alignment of MIS with business goals.

Chief Data Officer (CDO)

Executive who determines which information is captured, retained, analyzed, and shared.

Chief Technology Officer (CTO)

Executive who oversees throughput, speed, accuracy, availability, and reliability of systems.

Chief Security Officer (CSO)

Executive responsible for security of business systems and defense against hackers and viruses.

Competitive Advantage

A product or service customers value more than similar offerings; it is temporary because competitors can copy it.

First-Mover Advantage

An advantage gained by being first to market with a product or service.

SWOT Analysis

An analytical framework that evaluates Strengths and Weaknesses (internal) alongside Opportunities and Threats (external).

Porter's Five Forces

A framework consisting of buyer power, supplier power, threat of substitutes, threat of new entrants, and rivalry among competitors.

Cost Leadership

A broad-market strategy focused on low cost (such as Walmart).

Differentiation

A broad-market strategy offering something distinctive, often at a higher cost.

Primary Value Chain Activities

Inbound logistics, operations, outbound logistics, marketing and sales, and service.

Support Value Chain Activities

Firm infrastructure, human resource management, technology development, and procurement.

Critical Success Factors (CSFs)

Crucial steps a company must perform to achieve its goals; they come first before KPIs.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

Quantifiable metrics that track progress toward critical success factors (CSFs).

Transaction Processing System (TPS)

A basic operational-level system that supports structured decisions.

Online Transaction Processing (OLTP)

The capturing, processing, storing, and updating of transactional data.

Online Analytical Processing (OLAP)

The manipulation of information to create business intelligence.

Decision Support System (DSS)

A system that models information to support managers during decision making.

Executive Information System (EIS)

A specialized DSS designed for senior executives making unstructured, long-term, nonroutine decisions.

Granularity

The level of detail in information.

Machine Learning

Technology that allows computers to understand concepts and learn from data.

Supervised Learning

Machine learning using labeled examples to learn relationships.

Unsupervised Learning

Machine learning that finds patterns in data without labeled outcomes.

Overfitting

A modeling error occurring when a model matches training data so closely that it performs poorly on new data.

Underfitting

A modeling error occurring when a model fails to learn the complexity in the data and predicts poorly.

Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN)

A graphical notation for mapping business processes.

Business Process Reengineering (BPR)

Strategic-level analysis and redesign of workflow within and between enterprises that creates a new process path.

Robotic Process Automation (RPA)

The use of AI and machine-learning software for high-volume, repeatable tasks.

Disruptive Technology

A new way of doing things that initially does not meet existing customers' needs.

Disintermediation

Selling directly to consumers and cutting out intermediaries.

Web 2.0

A mature communications platform characterized by collaboration, sharing, and free content.

Metcalfe's Law

A law stating that the value of a network is proportional to the square of the number of users.

Network Effect

The principle that products gain value as the number of users increases.

Deep Web

The large part of the internet that is inaccessible to conventional search engines.

Dark Web

An intentionally hidden part of the internet with masked IP addresses that requires a special browser for access.

Nonrepudiation

A mechanism that prevents ebusiness participants from denying their online actions.

Social Engineering

Manipulating people into revealing confidential information.

Biometrics

Authentication based on physical traits such as fingerprint, iris, face, or voice.

Intrusion Detection Software (IDS)

Software that monitors network traffic for patterns that identify intruders.

Business Continuity Planning (BCP)

A plan outlining how an organization recovers and restores interrupted critical functions within a predetermined time.

Hot Site

A separate, fully equipped facility where business operations can resume immediately after a disaster.

Cold Site

A separate facility with no computer equipment that serves only as a place to move following a disaster.

Moore's Law

The observation that computer chip performance per dollar doubles approximately every 18 months.

Virtualization

Technology allowing multiple virtual machines to operate on a single computing device, sharing memory and disk.

Software as a Service (SaaS)

Cloud computing model delivering applications over the internet; intended for end users.

Platform as a Service (PaaS)

Cloud computing model providing environments for application developers to build services.

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

Cloud computing model providing raw computing and storage hardware; intended for infrastructure and network architects.

Master Data Management (MDM)

The practice of gathering data and ensuring it is uniform, accurate, consistent, and complete for critical entities.

Primary Key

A field or group of fields that uniquely identifies an entity in a table.

Foreign Key

A primary key from one table that appears as an attribute in another table to create a logical relationship.

Data Warehouse

A logical collection of data aggregated from many operational databases into one repository to support analysis and decision making.

ETL (Extraction, Transformation, and Loading)

A process that extracts data from sources, transforms it using common definitions, and loads it into a data warehouse.

Data Lake

A repository that stores vast amounts of raw data in its original format until needed.

Blockchain

A distributed ledger of blocks that maintains a permanent, tamper-proof record of transactions.

Local Area Network (LAN)

A network that connects computers in close proximity, such as an office, school, or home.

Wide Area Network (WAN)

A network that spans a large geographic area, such as a state or country.

Bandwidth

The maximum amount of data that can pass between two points in a unit of time.

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID)

Technology using electronic tags to identify objects wirelessly over short distances.

Geographic Information System (GIS)

Hardware, software, and data providing location information on a multidimensional map.

Supply Chain Management (SCM)

The management of information flows among supply chain activities to maximize effectiveness and profitability.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

A strategy and system for managing customer relationships to increase loyalty, retention, and profitability.

RFM Formula

A customer analysis framework evaluating Recency (how recently purchased), Frequency (how often), and Monetary value (how much).

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)

Software that integrates all departments and functions across an enterprise into a single IT system or integrated set of systems.

Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC)

The overall process for developing information systems across seven phases: Planning, Analysis, Design, Development, Testing, Implementation, and Maintenance.

Scope Creep

The uncontrolled expansion of project scope beyond what was originally planned.

Triple Constraint

The framework balancing time, resources/cost, and scope, which are interdependent and managed through expectations.

Critical Path

The sequence of dependent tasks that determines the minimum possible duration of a project.

Central Processing Unit (CPU)

Hardware that interprets and executes instructions and coordinates other hardware components.

Control Unit

A CPU component that interprets software instructions and directs other devices.

Arithmetic-Logic Unit (ALU)

A CPU component that performs arithmetic and logic operations such as sorting and comparing.

Primary Storage

Main memory directly accessible to the CPU; includes RAM, cache, and ROM.

Secondary Storage

Long-term storage for large volumes of data, such as hard drives, tape, optical discs, and flash memory.

Random Access Memory (RAM)

Volatile primary working memory accessed directly by the CPU; loses its contents when power is turned off.

Read-Only Memory (ROM)

Non-volatile memory that keeps its contents even when the power is turned off.

Cache Memory

Small, fast memory located near the CPU to speed up instruction retrieval.

CISC vs. RISC

CISC chips recognize 100 or more instructions; RISC chips limit instructions to increase execution speed.

System Software

Software that controls how technology tools work with application software; includes operating systems and utilities.

Packet Switching

A transmission technology that divides a message into packets, each carrying its destination address.

Router

A network device that examines each data packet and decides where to send it next.

Network Topology

The geometric arrangement of computers and network devices (including bus, star, ring, hybrid, and wireless).

Interoperability

The ability of systems from different manufacturers to share data and resources.

TCP/IP

The transmission control protocol/internet protocol serving as the technical foundation of the public internet and many private networks.

OSI Model Layers

The seven networking layers in order: Application, Presentation, Session, Transport, Network, Data Link, and Physical.

VoIP (Voice over IP)

Technology that uses TCP/IP to transmit voice calls over a data network.