MIS6 – Flashcards
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A grouping of characters into a word, a group of words, or a complete number is called a record.
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F
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A DBMS separates the logical and physical views of data.
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T
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NoSQL technologies are used to manage sets of data that don't require the flexibility of tables and relations.
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T
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Because HTML was designed as a cross-platform language, it is the preferred method of communicating with back-end databases.
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F
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In a relational database, complex groupings of data must be streamlined to eliminate awkward many-to-many relationships.
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T
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OLAP is used for multidimensional data analysis.
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T
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OLAP enables users to obtain online answers to ad-hoc questions in a fairly rapid amount of time, except when the data are stored in very large databases.
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F
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In a Web-based database, middleware is used to transfer information from the organization's internal database back to the Web server for delivery in the form of a Web page to the user.
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T
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The disadvantage of using a Web interface for a database is that it typically requires substantial changes to the internal database.
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F
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Common Gateway Interface is a specification for processing data on a Web server.
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T
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Which of the following best illustrates the relationship between entities and attributes? A) the entity CUSTOMER with the attribute PRODUCT B) the entity CUSTOMER with the attribute PURCHASE C) the entity PRODUCT with the attribute PURCHASE D) the entity PRODUCT with the attribute CUSTOMER
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B
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Which of the following is not one of the main problems with a traditional file environment? A) data inconsistency B) program-data independence C) lack of flexibility in creating ad-hoc reports D) poor security
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B
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A DBMS reduces data redundancy and inconsistency by A) enforcing referential integrity. B) uncoupling program and data. C) utilizing a data dictionary. D) minimizing isolated files with repeated data.
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D
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A characteristic or quality describing an entity is called a(n) A) field. B) tuple. C) key field. D) attribute.
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D
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The confusion created by ________ makes it difficult for companies to create customer relationship management, supply chain management, or enterprise systems that integrate data from different sources. A) batch processing B) data redundancy C) data independence D) online processing
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B
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A DBMS makes the A) physical database available for different logical views. B) logical database available for different analytical views. C) physical database available for different analytical views. D) logical database available for different physical views.
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A
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The logical view A) shows how data are organized and structured on the storage media. B) presents an entry screen to the user. C) allows the creation of supplementary reports. D) presents data as they would be perceived by end users.
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D
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DBMS for midrange computers include all of the following except A) DB2. B) Oracle. C) Microsoft SQL Server. D) Microsoft Access.
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D
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The type of logical database model that treats data as if they were stored in two-dimensional tables is the A) non-relational DBMS. B) mobile DBMS. C) relational DBMS. D) hierarchical DBMS.
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C
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Oracle Database Lite is a(n) A) DBMS for small handheld computing devices. B) Internet DBMS. C) mainframe relational DBMS. D) DBMS for midrange computers.
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A
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Microsoft SQL Server is a(n) A) DBMS for small handheld computing devices. B) Internet DBMS. C) desktop relational DBMS. D) DBMS for midrange computers.
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D
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In a table for customers, the information about a single customer would reside in a single A) field. B) row. C) column. D) table.
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B
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In a relational database, a record is referred to in technical terms as a(n) A) tuple. B) row. C) entity. D) field.
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A
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A field identified in a record as holding the unique identifier for that record is called the A) primary key. B) key field. C) primary field. D) unique ID.
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B
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In a relational database, the three basic operations used to develop useful sets of data are A) select, project, and where. B) select, join, and where. C) select, project, and join. D) select, from, and join.
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C
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The select operation A) combines relational tables to provide the user with more information than is otherwise available. B) creates a subset consisting of columns in a table. C) identifies the table from which the columns will be selected. D) creates a subset consisting of all records in the file that meet stated criteria.
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D
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The join operation A) combines relational tables to provide the user with more information than is otherwise available. B) identifies the table from which the columns will be selected. C) creates a subset consisting of columns in a table. D) organizes elements into segments.
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A
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The project operation A) combines relational tables to provide the user with more information than is otherwise available. B) creates a subset consisting of columns in a table. C) organizes elements into segments. D) identifies the table from which the columns will be selected.
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B
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Big data does not refer to A) datasets with fewer than a billion records. B) datasets with unstructured data. C) machine-generated data (i.e. from sensors). D) data created by social media (i.e. tweets, Facebook Likes).
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A
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Which of the following technologies would you use to analyze the social media data collected by a major online retailer? A) OLAP B) data warehouse C) data mart D) Hadoop
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D
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An automated or manual file that stores information about data elements and data characteristics such as usage, physical representation, ownership, authorization, and security is the A) data dictionary. B) data definition diagram. C) entity-relationship diagram. D) relationship dictionary.
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A
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The specialized language programmers use to add and change data in the database is called A) a data access language. B) a data manipulation language. C) structured query language. D) a data definition language.
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B
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The most prominent data manipulation language today is A) Access. B) DB2. C) SQL. D) Crystal Reports.
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C
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DBMSs typically include report-generating tools in order to A) retrieve and display data. B) display data in an easier-to-read format. C) display data in graphs. D) perform predictive analysis.
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B
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The process of streamlining data to minimize redundancy and awkward many-to-many relationships is called A) normalization. B) data scrubbing. C) data cleansing. D) data defining.
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A
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A schematic of the entire database that describes the relationships in a database is called a(n) A) data dictionary. B) intersection relationship diagram. C) entity-relationship diagram. D) data definition diagram.
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C
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A one-to-one relationship between two entities is symbolized in a diagram by a line that ends with A) two short marks. B) one short mark. C) a crow's foot. D) a crow's foot topped by a short mark.
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A
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Which of the following is not one of the techniques used in Web mining? A) content mining B) structure mining C) server mining D) user mining
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D
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You work for a national car rental agency and want to determine what characteristics are shared among your most loyal customers. To do this, you will want to use data mining software that is capable of A) identifying associations. B) identifying clusters. C) identifying sequences. D) classification.
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D
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A data warehouse is composed of A) historical data from legacy systems. B) current data. C) internal and external data sources. D) historic and current internal data.
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D
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All of the following are technologies used to analyze and manage big data except A) cloud computing. B) noSQL. C) in-memory computing. D) analytic platforms.
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A
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A nationwide magazine publisher has hired you to help analyze their social media datasets to determine which of their news publications are seen as the most trustworthy. Which of the following tools would you use to analyze this data? A) text mining tools B) sentiment analysis software C) Web usage mining technologies D) data mining software for identifying associations
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B
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The tool that enables users to view the same data in different ways using multiple dimensions is A) predictive analysis. B) SQL. C) OLAP. D) data mining.
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C
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OLAP is a tool for enabling A) users to obtain online answers to ad-hoc questions in a rapid amount of time. B) users to view both logical and physical views of data. C) programmers to quickly diagram data relationships. D) programmers to normalize data.
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A
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Data mining is a tool for allowing users to A) quickly compare transaction data gathered over many years. B) find hidden relationships in data. C) obtain online answers to ad-hoc questions in a rapid amount of time. D) summarize massive amounts of data into much smaller, traditional reports.
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B
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In terms of data relationships, associations refers to A) events linked over time. B) patterns that describe a group to which an item belongs. C) occurrences linked to a single event. D) undiscovered groupings.
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C
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________ tools are used to analyze large unstructured data sets, such as e-mail, memos, survey responses, etc., to discover patterns and relationships. A) OLAP B) Text mining C) In-memory D) Clustering
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B
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An alternative to using application server software for interfacing between a Web server and back-end databases is A) CGI. B) HTML. C) Java. D) SQL.
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A
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The organization's rules for sharing, disseminating, acquiring, standardizing, classifying, and inventorying information is called a(n) A) information policy. B) data definition file. C) data quality audit. D) data governance policy.
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A
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The special organizational function whose responsibilities include physical database design and maintenance, is called A) data administration. B) database administration. C) information policy administration. D) data auditing.
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B
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Which common database challenge is illustrated by a person receiving multiple copies of an L.L. Bean catalog, each addressed to a slightly different variation of his or her full name? A) data normalization B) data accuracy C) data redundancy D) data inconsistency
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D
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Data cleansing not only corrects errors but also A) establishes logical relationships between data. B) structures data. C) normalizes data. D) enforces consistency among different sets of data.
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D
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The small publishing company you work for wants to create a new database for storing information about all of their author contracts. What factors will influence how you design the database?
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Student answers will vary, but should include some assessment of data quality, business processes and user needs, and relationship to existing IT systems. Key points to include are: Data accuracy when the new data is input, establishing a good data model, determining which data is important and anticipating what the possible uses for the data will be, beyond looking up contract information, technical difficulties linking this system to existing systems, new business processes for data input and handling, and contracts management, determining how end users will use the data, making data definitions consistent with other databases, what methods to use to cleanse the data.
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When you design the new contracts database for the publishing house mentioned above, what fields do you anticipate needing? Which of these fields might be in use in other databases used by the company?
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Author first name, author last name, author address, agent name and address, title of book, book ISBN, date of contract, amount of money, payment schedule, date contract ends. Other databases might be an author database (author names, address, and agent details), a book title database (title and ISBN of book), and financial database (payments made).
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List at least three conditions that contribute to data redundancy and inconsistency.
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Data redundancy occurs when different divisions, functional areas, and groups in an organization independently collect the same piece of information. Because it is collected and maintained in so many different places, the same data item may have: 1. different meanings in different parts of the organization, 2. different names may be used for the same item, and 3. different descriptions for the same condition. In addition, the fields into which the data is gathered may have different field names, different attributes, or different constraints.
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List and describe three main capabilities or tools of a DBMS.
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A data definition capability to specify the structure of the content of the database. This capability would be used to create database tables and to define the characteristics of the fields in each table. A data dictionary to store definitions of data elements in the database and their characteristics. In large corporate databases, the data dictionary may capture additional information, such as usage; ownership; authorization; security; and the individuals, business functions, programs, and reports that use each data element. A data manipulation language, such as SQL, that is used to add, change, delete, and retrieve the data in the database. This language contains commands that permit end users and programming specialists to extract data from the database to satisfy information requests and develop applications.
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You have been hired by a national furniture leasing company to implement its first business intelligence systems and infrastructure. To prepare for your initial report, describe the types of data in their firm they can use to support business intelligence and the systems that you will implement to support both their power users and casual users, and explain how these systems or tools work together.
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All types of data can be used for their business intelligence systems, including operational, historical, machine-generated, Web/social data, audio and video data, and external data. The large datasets can be collected in a Hadoop cluster, and used by an analytic platform to support power user queries, data mining, OLAP, etc. A data warehouse can be used to house all data, including smaller data sets and operational data, and be used to support casual use, for queries, reports, and digital dashboards, as well as support the analytic platforms. Smaller data marts can be created from the data warehouse to enable faster querying and typical queries from casual users.
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Identify and describe three basic operations used to extract useful sets of data from a relational database.
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The select operation creates a subset consisting of all records (rows) in the table that meets stated criteria. The join operation combines relational tables to provide the user with more information than is available in individual tables. The project operation creates a subset consisting of columns in a table, permitting the user to create new tables that contain only the information required.
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Describe the ways in which database technologies could be used by an office stationery supply company to achieve low-cost leadership.
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Sales databases could be used to make the supply chain more efficient and minimize warehousing and transportation costs. You can also use sales databases, as well as text mining and sentiment analysis, to determine what supplies are in demand by which customers and whether needs are different in different geographical areas. Business intelligence databases could be used to predict future trends in office supply needs, to help anticipate demand, and to determine the most efficient methods of transportation and delivery.
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Describe the ways in which database technologies could be used by a toy manufacturer to achieve product differentiation.
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Product databases could be made available to customers for greater convenience and ordering online. Databases could be used to track customer preferences and to help anticipate customer desires. Sales databases could also help clients such as toy stores anticipate when they would need to re-supply, providing an additional service. Data mining, Web mining, and sentiment analysis of big data could help anticipate trends in sales or other factors to help determine new services and products to sell to clients.
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What makes data mining an important business tool? What types of information does data mining produce? In what type of circumstance would you advise a company to use data mining?
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Data mining is one of the data analysis tools that helps users make better business decisions and is one of the key tools of business intelligence. Data mining allows users to analyze large amounts of data and find hidden relationships between data that otherwise would not be discovered. For example, data mining might find that a customer that buys product X is ten times more likely to buy product Y than other customers. Data mining finds information such as: • Associations or occurrences that are linked to a single event. • Sequences, events that are linked over time. • Classification, patterns that describe the group to which an item belongs, found by examining existing items that have been classified and by inferring a set of rules. • Clusters, unclassified but related groups. I would advise a company to use data mining when they are looking for new products and services, or when they are looking for new marketing techniques or new markets. Data mining might also be helpful when trying to analyze unanticipated problems with sales whose causes are difficult to identify.
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What are the differences between data mining and OLAP? When would you advise a company to use OLAP?
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Data mining uncovers hidden relationships and is used when you are trying to discover data and new relationships. It is used to answer questions such as: Are there any product sales that are related in time to other product sales? In contrast, OLAP is used to analyze multiple dimensions of data and is used to find answers to complex, but known, questions, such as: What were sales of a product—broken down by month and geographical region, and how did those sales compare to sales forecasts?
