If you were a programmer, would you prefer to work with procedural or non-procedural languages? Explain your reasons.
> Think of all the tasks that you perform when you purchase a car. Include any research, decisions, or financial issues that relate to the purchase. Create a WBS that shows all the tasks, their estimated duration, and any predecessor tasks.
> Think of a problem you have experienced at school or at work and draw a sample fishbone diagram with at least two levels.
> Visit the website for an IT magazine and find an article that discusses business cases. Summarize the article and what you learned from it.
> A mind map is a diagram used to visually organize information. Identify a tool that supports the creation of mind maps and explain how they can be a valuable part of strategic planning.
> Prepare a SWOT analysis of your school or your employer.
> Use the Internet to find three examples of corporate mission statements.
> Describe the business profile of a home improvement store like Home Depot or Lowe’s and how it is used.
> Explain how ridesharing services such as Uber and Lyft are disrupting traditional taxicab business models.
> What are the five main components of an information system?
> What decisions might management reach at the end of the systems analysis phase, and what would be the next step in each case?
> What is information technology, and why is it important to society?
> What are the roles and responsibilities of a systems analyst in a modern business?
> Summarize the seven main functions of the IT department.
> Name the tools that enable the systems analyst to develop, manage, and maintain large-scale information systems.
> Compare three system development methods.
> What types of information do the four organizational levels common to many businesses need?
> What are the seven types of information systems used in business?
> Many large organizations have had their database system hacked and customer data stolen. How should the security for the database be different than security for the rest of the system? Does it make a difference for web-based data designs? If so, how?
> In the auto shop examples in Section 9.1.2, what are some problems that might arise in Mario’s system? Why won’t Danica run into the same problems? Provide specific examples in your answer.
> Are there ethical issues to consider when planning a database? For example, should sensitive personal data (such as medical information) be stored in the same DBMS that manages employee salary and benefits data? Why or why not?
> What are the six security levels? Provide examples of threat categories, attacker profiles, and types of attacks.
> We use lots of codes in our personal and business lives. How many can you name?
> Suggest three typical business situations where referential integrity avoids data problems. Students might respond with examples similar to the following.
> If you are managing a large project, would you prefer Gantt charts or PERT/CPM charts to represent project status? Explain why.
> When using a project triangle to illustrate conflicting priorities, Microsoft suggests that if the problem is in the fixed leg, work on the other two legs. For example, if the project must not exceed the budget and it is starting to run over, adjust the
> Rapid advancements in areas such as machine learning and predictive analytics in data science are affecting the daily operations of many IT departments. What should a systems analyst do to stay current?
> Should the IT director report to the company president, or somewhere else? Does it matter?
> Under what circumstances should a systems analyst recommend an agile methodology over structured development or object-oriented analysis?
> When team members are geographically dispersed, communication becomes more challenging. Explain how groupware can increase user productivity in this context.
> Some experts believe that the growth in e-commerce will cause states and local governments to lose tax revenue, unless Internet transactions are subject to sales tax. What is one argument that supports this view, and one that opposes it?
> Risk analysis is typically a two-step process: qualitative risk analysis and quantitative risk analysis. As a systems analyst, for which sorts of project management decisions would you use the results from qualitative risk analysis? From the quantitative
> Suppose you tried to explain the concept of weighted evaluation models to a manager, and she responded by asking, “So, how do you set the weight factors? Is it just a subjective guess?” How would you reply?
> Some project management applications can be quite expensive. As a manager, how would you justify the purchase of this software?
> Consider a scenario where a task is dependent on another task being started but not necessarily completed. For example, a project may depend on a task being started and one-fourth completed before the group could start their portion of the project. Do yo
> Some people rely heavily on social networking, IM, and texting to communicate with friends and business colleagues. Others find these methods distracting. Do you use social networking, IM, or texting? Why or why not?
> How might Boolean logic and Venn diagrams be useful in everyday life?
> Some companies pay to obtain a higher ranking when search results are displayed. Is this good, is it bad, or does it not matter to you as a user? Explain your position.
> How can you be sure that the information you find using an Internet search is trustworthy?
> The Internet has affected many aspects of our society. What are the most important benefits of the Internet, and what problems has it created?
> The time value of money can be an important factor when analyzing a project’s NPV. Is the time value of money just as important in periods of low inflation as it is in periods of high inflation? Explain your answer.
> In this Toolkit, you learned how to use payback analysis, ROI, and NPV to assess IT projects. Could these tools be used in your personal life? Give an example of how you might use each one to help you make a financial decision.
> Discuss some of the pros and cons of payback analysis.
> Select a financial SaaS application, and describe its main features.
> Discuss some of the pros and cons of the four chargeback methods.
> Why is it difficult to assign a dollar figure to an intangible cost? Can it ever be done? Explain your answer and provide an example.
> Some analysts believe that if the trend toward more powerful CASE tools continues, many tedious development tasks might be performed automatically. Is there a limit to the capabilities of future CASE software? Could describing a business operation and sp
> Discuss how ALM CASE tools have evolved from IDEs.
> Visit the websites for Microsoft Visual Studio and Eclipse. If you could choose only one of these development environments, which one would you select, and why?
> How could you use a reverse engineering tool in a typical systems project?
> To be a successful communicator, which skill do you think is more important: written communication or oral presentation? Explain why.
> Many articles stress the importance of body language. Think of examples where you noticed a person’s body language. Did it relate to something they were trying to communicate—or something they were trying not to communicate?
> Based on your own experience, what tends to make a PowerPoint presentation stronger or weaker? Provide specific examples.
> The final task in the preliminary investigation is to summarize the results and recommendations in a report and/or in a presentation. Which form of communication, written or oral, do you think is the most effective for conveying your findings to manageme
> Which do you think is more effective in business reports, active or passive voice? Explain why with examples.
> Describe the culture at a business where you have been employed.
> Many people don’t back up their data until it’s too late. Once they go through a catastrophic loss of all their work, they tend to change their habits. What are some of the better ways to perform personal backups, such as cloud-based services?
> What are the most important IT security issues facing companies today? Have these changed in the last five years, and will they continue to change? How should companies prepare themselves for security threats and problems in the future?
> How could you use a spreadsheet in capacity planning?
> Assume that your company uses a release methodology for its sales system. The current version is 5.5. Decide whether each of the following changes would justify a version 6.0 release or be included in a version 5.6 update: (a) Add a new report. (b) Add a
> The four types of IT system maintenance also apply to other industries. Suppose you were in charge of aircraft maintenance for a small airline. What would be a specific example of each type of maintenance?
> Suppose that you designed a tutorial to train a person in the use of specific software or hardware, such as a web browser. What specific information would you want to know about the recipient of the training? How would that information affect the design
> Your supervisor said, “Integration testing is a waste of time. If each program is tested adequately, integration testing isn’t needed. Instead, we should move on to system testing as soon as possible. If modules don’t interact properly, we’ll handle it t
> Experienced programmers sometimes eschew IDEs for handcrafted tools, often connected in a pipeline to facilitate complex workflows. What advantages and disadvantages would this approach have over sophisticated IDEs?
> When setting priorities for system requests, the highest priority goes to projects that provide the greatest benefit, at the lowest cost, in the shortest period of time. How would you reconcile projects that can produce good results in the short term ver
> What are the most significant differences among structured, O-O, and agile methods? What do they have in common?
> Discuss the three techniques used to improve QA.
> One manager states, “When a new system is proposed, I want a written report, not an oral presentation, which is like a sales pitch. I only want to see the facts about costs, benefits, and schedules.” Do you agree with that point of view?
> What are the main differences between the BSS and ESS wireless topologies?
> Is batch processing still relevant? Why or why not?
> E-commerce has seen explosive growth in recent years. What are the most important reasons for this trend? Will it continue? Why or why not?
> How is the proliferation of mobile devices that are locally powerful, use apps instead of full- fledged applications, and rely on wireless network connectivity changing system architecture design considerations?
> Why is strategic planning important for IT professionals?
> What is the CIA triangle?
> How is the increased use of smartphones and tablets, with their smaller screen size, affecting user interface design practices?
> What are some key issues that you must address when considering data backup and recovery?
> Describe each benefit classification and include two examples.
> What are four chargeback methods?
> Describe four cost classifications and include two examples.
> How do you know if a project is economically feasible?
> What is the meaning of the phrase, time value of money?
> Define the term present value and provide an example.
> Would the formulas in questions 6 and 7 also apply to heavy equipment, such as a bulldozer? Why or why not?
> What formula do you use to calculate ROI?
> What formula do you use to calculate the payback period?
> A user interface can be quite restrictive. For example, the interface design might not allow a user to exit to a Windows desktop or to log on to the Internet. Should a user interface include such restrictions? Why or why not?
> What is the payback period?
> Why is practice so important when preparing a presentation? Provide a specific example from your own experience.
> Name three strategies to use if you get nervous during a presentation.
> When you organize a presentation, what three stages do you plan?
> When preparing an oral presentation, what six tasks should you perform?
> What techniques can help email communications? Provide specific examples.
> Describe five techniques you can use to improve your written documents.
> What is a corporate culture, and why is it important?
> What is Toast masters?
> What five questions should you answer before you communicate?
> Suppose your network support company employs 75 technicians who travel constantly and work at customer sites. Your task is to design an information system that provides technical data and information to the field team. What types of output and informatio
> The vice president of accounting says to you, the IT director, “This request procedure takes too long. My people know what they are doing, and their systems requests are necessary and important.” She suggests that the IT department bypass the initial ste
> What are some key issues that you must address when considering data backup and recovery?
> Explain the concept of risk management, including risk identification, assessment, and control.
> Define the following terms: response time, bandwidth, throughput, and turnaround time. How are the terms related?
