Sample/practice exam 2015, questions and answers - Business intelligence - infs2036 PDF

Preview

Summary

BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE - INFS2036 ...

Description

INFS2036 Business Intelligence Student Number Study Period 2&3 Exams, 2015

Last Name First Name

|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__| __| ______________________ _

Calculator Details ______________________ This exam paper must not be removed from the venue

_ Make

_________________

Model _________________

Information Technology and Mathematical Sciences SAMPLE EXAMINATION SOLUTIONS INFS 2036 Business Intelligence This paper is for City West, External Central Exam Venue (External) and External Exam Venue (External) students.

Examination Duration: Reading Time:

90 minutes 10 minutes

For Examiner Use Only Question

Mark

Section A Q1-10 10 marks

Exam Conditions: Extra time and bilingual dictionary provision allowed for ENTEXT eligible students This exam is

Section B Q11 10 marks

closed book

Materials Permitted In The Exam Venue:

Section C Q12-13 10 marks

(No electronic aids are permitted e.g. laptops, phones)

Total ________

Non programmable calculator permitted Materials To Be Supplied To Students: 1 x Number of 8pg answer booklets per student

Page 1 of 8

INFS2036 Business Intelligence

Section A. 10 Multiple choice questions (10 marks) Circle the one option for each question below that you select as the correct answer. If you change your mind, draw a cross through the old selection and circle your new answer. If more than one option is selected or the selection is not clear zero marks will be awarded. Q1.

Data needed to support the tactical plans of an organisation, should: a.

Be mainly coming from external sources

b.

Cover a time period of 2-10 years

c.

Come from many different systems

Lecture 2

Support medium term activities in the organisation d.

Q2.

BI can support organisation’s management and planning processes by providing information to: a.

Monitoring problems, Intervene in those problems and then Discover whether those problems are reducing

b.

Intervene in identified problems, Monitor whether those problems are reducing then Discover what can be done about them

Lecture 1

Discover what is causing problems, Intervene in those c. problems and Monitor to see whether those problems are reducing d.

Q3.

Monitoring problems, Discover whether those problems are reducing and then Intervene in those problems if they aren’t

Business Intelligence and Analytics has evolved since the 1990’s from: Using the data, optimising performance and now driving a. changes in business processes b.

Optimising performance and now using the data to drive changes in business processes

c.

Driving changes in business processes to now using the data to optimise performance

Page 2 of 8

Lecture 1

INFS2036 Business Intelligence

d.

Q4.

Lessons learned in process optimization to now understanding the value behind big data

To support performance management BIA should provide dashboards to management that a.

Have the latest available data

b.

Have as many different charts and visualisations as possible to cover all the different aspects of the organisation

c.

Minimise the amount of time they need to spend using BI by providing just a few pieces of information quickly

Lecture 2

Quickly show patterns/trends in data across the organisation d.

Q5.

Self-service BI:

Lecture 5

a.

Is a growing area only because central BI teams can’t keep up with all the work

b.

Will only cause problems in a large organisation and so should be avoided as much as possible Will meet some employees information needs but only up to

c. a point d.

Q6.

Will increase the amount of work the central BI team will need to do

How many dimensions does a data cube have? a.

1

b.

The same as the number of Facts or Measures.

c.

3 Many; limited only by computer resources.

d.

Page 3 of 8

Lecture 11

INFS2036 Business Intelligence

Q7.

Which option below is correct for a data warehouse (DW)? a.

Lecture 11

A DW is structured to represent the different divisions and activities of a company. A DW is designed to optimise queries.

b.

Q8.

c.

A DW only keeps the most up to date data for the organisation.

d.

A DW keeps a store of business transactions for daily operations.

Which statement about the ETL is NOT correct? a.

ETL stands for Extract Transformation Load

b.

ETL automates the integration of various data sources

c.

ETL may be the link between operational systems and a data warehouse ETL ensures high quality of data in a data warehouse

d.

Q9.

A company which sells fitness trackers wishes to build a data warehouse to store its business activity for later analysis. The sales data contains dates, regions, quantity sold, products and return rates. Which data entities should be Facts/Measures and which should be Dimensions for the analysis? Facts/Measures: Quantity sold, return rate a. Dimensions: Date, product, region b.

Facts/Measures: Quantity sold, product Dimensions: Date, return rate, region

c.

Facts/Measures: Product, region Dimensions: Date, quantity sold, return rate

Page 4 of 8

Lecture 11

INFS2036 Business Intelligence

d.

Q 10.

Facts/Measures: Date, quantity sold, product. Dimensions: Return rate, region.

Which of the following guidelines is NOT a necessity for visualising data? a.

A visualisation should be interactive and allow end-users to specify filters

b.

Colour coding is an important aspect to simplify the understanding A visualisation should look impressive if possible with

c. embedded animations d.

Multiple devices ranging from desktop computer to mobile devices should be supported

Page 5 of 8

Lecture 9

INFS2036 Business Intelligence

Section B One Question (10 marks) Q 11.

Discuss Master Data Management (MDM) in the context of Business Intelligence. Explain (a) what MDM is in 3-4 sentences, (b) explain three reasons why it is important, (c) provide four typical examples and explain them, and finally (d) describe four benefits. a) Master Data Management (MDM) plays an important role in Business Intelligence and deals with the management of all necessary data that adds value to a business. Data of an organisation is usually dispersed over many different data sources. In order to apply Business Intelligence the different data sources need to be integrated. The goal of MDM is provide this integration and provide a “single version of truth” across the whole organisation. It consists of business applications, different information management methods, and data management tools to create and manage policies and procedures that specify the collection, integration and sharing of data across the organisation. b) First, MDM is required in particular for BI because all analytical techniques rely on data. Therefore proper management and handling of the data must be ensured by an appropriate MDM infrastructure. Second, data is captured on a daily basis in an organisation. It is crucial that the data is captured accurately and consistent to the policies and procedures put in place. Third, analytical processing in particular data mining requires data from various sources made available in an integrated fashion. MDM helps to achieve an integrated view. c) Four typical master data: (1) Customer Data like name, address, history of purchases and communication with the organisation, satisfaction with products, etc. (2) Employee Data like name, address, position, department, responsibilities, training courses taken, history of employment, etc. (3) Vendors like name, address, prices, quality, credit rating, purchase history, trend of prices, etc., and (4) Products like name, release date, consumer satisfaction, sales figures, region where sold, typical customers, etc. d) Four possible benefits: (1) Increased knowledge about customers: with improved data quality and enhanced collection of data based on MDM policies and procedures, more insights on customer behaviour can be achieved by analysing customer data. (2) Improved customer service: with an integrated view of the data and real-time accessibility of data, customers can be served in a better way, e.g., instant feedback on order status or update of customer details. (3) Better spend analysis and planning: If data is properly managed and of high quality then this simplifies the analysis compared to unprepared data of bad quality. Further it allows to perform proper predictive analysis crucial for planning. (4) Consistent reporting: a “single version of truth” achieved by MDM supports a consistent style of reporting across the departments of an organisation. This

Page 6 of 8

INFS2036 Business Intelligence

supports the management in understanding the data and analysing them and leads to improved decision making.

Section C Two questions (10 marks). Q 12.

'Producers' are one type of BI user. Outline 3 other types of BI users and how they would make use of BI Lecture 4 (~ 100 words, 6 marks) The following is just an example of which content should be included. You need to elaborate more on it. • • •

Q 13.

Consumers: little desire to create, task oriented – need to make decisions quickly (eg: customers, public, suppliers, employees) Builders: central or business IT Collaborators: add to and improve the data from BI, add their knowledge, add comments and links, rate the data (eg: social media technologies)

Lecture 5 What are the benefits and risks for organisations associated with Self-Service BI (eg: Microsoft PowerBI and Tableau). ( ~ 60 words, 4 marks)

Benefits • • • •

• • • • •

Quicker delivery of BI for end user Can make use of user's existing knowledge of software rather than learn a new one (eg: Microsoft Excel) Gives more ‘power’ to the business user to set priorities Allows end user to iterate through their requirements themselves rather than use BI/IT resources to do this – this also helps once they need the BI team to build something more permanent Provides a means for users with very sensitive data to keep control of it rather than require it to be stored in central BI systems Using a common self-service tool allows users to collaborate In short term can be much smaller cost to set up and maintain Builds a positive experience for users towards BI/ Users become more invested in possibilities of BI Expectation from end-users that central BI systems should become more responsive (also a risk)

Page 7 of 8

INFS2036 Business Intelligence

Risks  Users creating multiple sets of data that is not necessarily managed so have duplicate copies or slightly changed copies of data throughout    

organisation Data unlikely to be conformed to standards or have metadata created and stored Requires a greater level of skill, especially for data acquisition and preparation Creates an end-user demand to increasingly access central BI data bypassing the managed BI front end Issues of security, performance and licensing not necessarily managed

 Data management skills  In longer term complexity increases cost  Vendor market for self-serve tools still maturing  Expectation from end-users that central BI systems should become more responsive (also a benefit)

END OF EXAMINATION

Page 8 of 8...