Final Exam Exercise Questions

+++Q1- Explain and give examples to the terms mashup and widget. (Ch5)

+++Q2- List and describe the five moral dimensions of the Information Age that are involved in political,
social, and ethical issues. (Ch4)

Answer: The five moral dimensions are:

1. Information rights and obligations. What rights do individuals and organizations have with respect to
information pertaining to them?
2. Property rights. How can intellectual property rights be protected when it is so easy to copy digital
materials?
3. Accountability and control. Who will be held accountable and liable for the harm done to individual
and collective information and property rights?
4. System quality. What standards of data and system quality should we demand to protect individual
rights and the safety of society?
5. Quality of life. What values should be preserved? What institutions must we protect? What cultural
values can be harmed?

+++Q3- Discuss at least three key technology trends that raise ethical issues. Give an example of an ethical or
moral impact connected to each one. (Ch4)

Answer: Key technology trends include the following:

1. Computer power doubling every 18 months: ethical impact—because more organizations depend on
computer systems for critical operations, these systems are vulnerable to computer crime and computer
abuse;
2. Data storage costs are rapidly declining: ethical impact—it is easy to maintain detailed databases on
individuals—who has access to and control of these databases?;
3. Data analysis advances: ethical impact—vast databases full of individual information may be used to
develop detailed profiles of individual behavior; and
4. Networking advances and the Internet: ethical impact—it is easy to copy data from one location to
another. Who owns data? How can ownership be protected?

+++Q6- Define the basic concepts of responsibility, accountability, and liability as applied to ethical decisions.
(Ch4)

???Q9- Describe the relationship between TPS, MIS, DSS and ESS. (Ch2)

Answer: The types of information systems used for different levels of management are transaction
processing systems (TPS), management information systems (MIS), decision-support systems (DSS),
and executive support systems (ESS). TPS, such as payroll or order processing, track the flow of the
daily routine transactions that are necessary to conduct business. They are used by operational managers
to manage day-to-day operations. MIS summarize and report on the company's basic operations using
data supplied by TPS. They provide middle managers with reports on the organization's current
performance and are not highly analytical. DSS also support middle management decisions when these
decisions are unique, rapidly changing, and not specified easily in advance. They use advanced
analytical models and data analysis capabilities and often draw on information from external as well as
internal sources. ESS support senior management by providing data of greatest importance to senior
management decision makers. ESS provide a generalized computing and communications capacity that
can be applied to a changing array of problems. ESS present graphs and data from many sources through
an interface that is easy for senior managers to use, often a portal.

Q10- What is the difference between information technology and information systems? Describe some of
the functions of information systems. (Ch1)

Answer: Information technology (IT) consists of all the hardware and software that a firm needs to use
to achieve its business objectives. Information systems are more complex. An information system can be
defined technically as a set of interrelated components that collect (or retrieve), process, store, and
distribute information to support decision making and control in an organization.

An information system:
• supports decision making, coordination, and control
• helps employees analyze problems
• helps employees visualize complex subjects
• helps create new products

Q2- Discuss at least three key technology trends that raise ethical issues. Give an example of an ethical or moral
impact connected to each one. (Ch4)

Q7- What are the impact of the Internet on competitive forces? (Ch3)

Answer: Because of the Internet, traditional competitive forces are still at work, but competitive rivalry
has become much more intense. Internet technology is based on universal standards that any company
can use, making it easier for rivals to compete on price alone and for new competitors to enter the
market. Because information is available to everyone, the Internet raises the bargaining power of
customers, who can quickly find the lowest-cost provider on the Web. The printed encyclopedia industry
and the travel agency industry have been nearly decimated by the availability of substitutes over the
Internet.

+++Q9- There are 6 strategic business objectives of information systems. Explain them in detail. (Ch1)

Answer: Accenture's information systems allow its mobile workforce to be within easy, constant reach
of its customers, contributing to the business objective of customer and supplier intimacy. Additionally,
the ability of employees to connect to and work with local branch information systems in standard ways,
regardless of their location, contributes to more efficient processes and operational excellence.
Distinguish between grid computing, cloud computing, and utility computing.

Answer: Grid computing involves connecting geographically remote computers into a single network
to create a computational grid that combines the computing power of all the computers on the network
with which to attack large computing problems. In cloud computing, technology services are provided
over a network, primarily the Internet. These may be infrastructure services, such as storage or
networking, or platform services, such as IBM's application development and test service, or software
services, such as salesforce.com. On-demand computing occurs when firms pay subscription fees or pay
only for their usage of a vendor's cloud computing services.