Q&A Hero

Q: Traditional methods of collecting systems requirements include: A) interviews. B) agile methodologies. C) joint application design. D) rapid application development. E) prototyping.

Q: Techniques developed to keep the analysis effort minimal, yet still effective include: A) JAD. B) interviewing. C) observations. D) document analysis. E) questionnaires.

Q: The term that refers to systems development projects bogged down in an abundance of analysis work is: A) information overload. B) analysis paralysis. C) analysis overload. D) information abundance. E) disruptive analysis.

Q: The purpose of requirements structuring is to: A) enable the analysts to gather information on what the system should do from as many sources as possible. B) enable the analysts to develop a baseline project plan quickly. C) enable the large amount of information gathered during requirements determination to be organized. D) enable the analysts to identify several feasible alternatives. E) collect information about the information systems that are currently in use.

Q: Which of the following are organizational components that a systems analyst needs to understand? A) Non-key events affecting data values (not including dates) B) Policies and guidelines that are not related to the nature of the business C) The sequence and other dependencies among different data-handling activities D) The data handled by competitors E) Departmental Politics

Q: The primary deliverables from requirements determination include: A) a completed prototype. B) a completed system. C) a final systems design document. D) a draft systems design document. E) identifying a steering committee.

Q: The reframing characteristic of a good systems analyst is represented by which of the following statements? A) You must challenge yourself to look at the organization in new ways. B) Every fact must fit with every other fact. C) Assume anything is possible, and eliminate the infeasible. D) You should question everything. E) Your role is to find the best solution to a business problem.

Q: Ensuring that every fact fits with every other fact best describes: A) the impertinence characteristic a systems analyst needs during requirements determination. B) the impartiality characteristic a systems analyst needs during requirements determination. C) the relaxing of constraints characteristic a systems analyst needs during requirements determination. D) the attention to details characteristic a systems analyst needs during requirements determination. E) the reframing characteristic a systems analyst needs during requirements determination.

Q: Questioning everything best describes: A) the impertinence characteristic a systems analyst needs during requirements determination. B) the impartiality characteristic a systems analyst needs during requirements determination. C) the relaxing of constraints characteristic a systems analyst needs during requirements determination. D) the attention to details characteristic a systems analyst needs during requirements determination. E) the reframing characteristic a systems analyst needs during requirements determination.

Q: Assuming anything is possible and eliminating the infeasible best describes: A) the impertinence characteristic a systems analyst needs during requirements determination. B) the impartiality characteristic a systems analyst needs during requirements determination. C) the relaxing of constraints characteristic a systems analyst needs during requirements determination. D) the attention to details characteristic a systems analyst needs during requirements determination. E) the reframing characteristic a systems analyst needs during requirements determination.

Q: The impartiality characteristic of a good systems analyst is represented by which of the following statements? A) You must challenge yourself to look at the organization in new ways. B) Your role is to find the best solution to a business problem or opportunity. C) Assume anything is possible, and eliminate the infeasible. D) You should question everything. E) Every fact must fit with every other fact.

Q: The impertinence characteristic of a good systems analyst is represented by which of the following statements? A) You must challenge yourself to look at the organization in new ways. B) You should question everything. C) Assume anything is possible, and eliminate the infeasible. D) Your role is to find the best solution to a business problem. E) Every fact must fit with every other fact.

Q: Analysts gathering information from as many sources as possible about what the new system should do is indicative of: A) requirements determination. B) requirements structuring. C) alternative generation and selection. D) project identification and selection. E) project initiation and planning.

Q: Which of the following is a subphase of analysis? A) Project identification B) Project planning C) Requirements determination D) Database design E) Human interface design

Q: Decision support tools aiding nonmanagers is an example of a disruptive technology.

Q: Induction refers to the process of first identifying problems and then formulating solutions.

Q: Disruptive technologies enable the breaking of long-held business rules that inhibit organizations from making radical business changes.

Q: In terms of BPR, activities deemed important, changeable, and dysfunctional are primary candidates for alteration.

Q: Key business processes are customer focused.

Q: Key business processes are the structured, measured set of activities designed to produce a specific output for a particular customer or market.

Q: BPR efforts often result in the development of information system maintenance requests or requests for system replacement.

Q: A first step in any BPR effort is to understand what processes need to change.

Q: The idea behind BPR is to reorganize the complete flow of data in major sections of an organization to eliminate unnecessary steps, achieve synergies among previously separate steps, and become more responsive to future changes.

Q: Rapid process redesign is the search for, and implementation of, radical change in business processes to achieve breakthrough improvements in products and services.

Q: The prototyping process usually includes formal documentation of system requirements.

Q: The goal with using prototyping to support requirements determination is to build the ultimate system from prototyping.

Q: In general, JADs benefit greatly from computer support.

Q: Referencing a JAD session, the sponsor is the individual responsible for organizing and running a JAD session.

Q: A JAD is an inexpensive, popular requirements determination technique.

Q: The primary purpose of using JAD in the analysis phase is to collect systems requirements simultaneously from the key people involved with the system.

Q: When comparing observations and document analysis, the time required for document analysis is rated as low to moderate.

Q: When comparing observations and document analysis, the chances for follow-up and probing with document analysis are rated high to excellent.

Q: When comparing observations and document analysis, the expense of observations is rated moderate.

Q: When gathering system requirements, document analysis and observation are used the least.

Q: The most useful forms do not contain data.

Q: Informal systems develop because of inadequacies of formal procedures, individual work habits and preferences, and resistance to control.

Q: If you encounter contradictory information about procedures from interviews, questionnaires, or observations, you should reconcile the contradictions before proceeding to other analysis tasks.

Q: As a systems analyst, it is part of your job to create a document for a missing work procedure.

Q: When performing observations, it is best to select typical people and sites as opposed to atypical people and sites.

Q: In documents you can find information about special information processing circumstances that occur irregularly.

Q: In documents you can find information about the values of the organization or individuals who can help determine priorities for different capabilities desired by different users.

Q: While being observed, employees may follow exact procedures more carefully than they typically do.

Q: Since observations are unbiased, they are preferable to other requirements determination techniques.

Q: You should use the interview process to set expectations about the new or replacement system.

Q: Multiple choice, rating, and ranking are types of closed-ended questions.

Q: A major disadvantage of closed-ended questions is that useful information that does not quite fit the defined answers may be overlooked as the respondent tries to make a choice instead of providing his or her best answer.

Q: Closed-ended questions work well when the major answers to the questions are known.

Q: Open-ended questions put the interviewee at ease, are easily summarized, and save time.

Q: Open-ended questions can put interviewees at ease because they can respond in their own words using their own structure.

Q: Open-ended questions are usually used to probe for information when you cannot anticipate all possible responses or when you do not know the precise question to ask.

Q: As a general guideline, you should prepare an agenda with approximate time limits for different sections of the interview.

Q: Neutrality is a guideline for effective interviewing.

Q: In order to promote more truthful responses, the general nature of the interview should not be explained to the interviewee in advance.

Q: Contrary to popular belief, interviewing is not one of the primary ways analysts gather information about an information systems project.

Q: Collection of information is at the core of systems analysis.

Q: Joint application design and prototyping can help keep the analysis effort at a minimum yet still effective.

Q: Requirements creep is a term used to describe a project that has become bogged down in an abundance of analysis work.

Q: Meeting notes, procedure manuals, and consultant reports are specific deliverables that might be obtained during the requirements determination process.

Q: Challenging yourself to look at the organization in new ways describes the impertinence characteristic that a systems analyst should exhibit during the requirements determination phase.

Q: Finding the best solution to a business problem or opportunity describes the attention to details characteristic that a systems analyst should exhibit during the requirements determination phase.

Q: Assuming anything is possible and eliminating the infeasible describes the reframing characteristic that a systems analyst should exhibit during the requirements determination phase.

Q: Information refinement means taking the system requirements you find during requirements determination and ordering them into tables, diagrams, and other formats that make them easier to translate into technical system specifications.

Q: During requirements determination, information can be gathered from users of the current system, forms, reports, and procedures.

Q: The two parts to systems analysis are determining requirements and structuring requirements.

Q: Define walkthrough and describe the role of each participant.

Q: What is a Project Scope Statement? What is a Baseline Project Plan? How are they different?

Q: Briefly identify three commonly used economic cost-benefit analysis techniques.

Q: Briefly identify and define the six major categories of feasibility.

Q: Briefly discuss the three primary project identification and selection phase activities.

Q: All of the following might attend a structured walkthrough meeting EXCEPT: A) CEO. B) Standards Bearer. C) User. D) Maintenance Oracle. E) Presenter.

Q: A peer-group review of any product created during the systems development process is called a: A) baseline project plan. B) structured workflow. C) structured walkthrough. D) statement of work. E) none of the above.

Q: A document prepared for the customer during project initiation and planning that describes what the project will deliver and outlines generally at a high level all work required to complete the project is the: A) Information Systems Plan. B) Project Scope Statement. C) Mission Statement. D) Baseline Project Plan. E) Systems Service Request.

Q: An assessment of the development group's understanding of the possible target hardware, software, and operating environments, system size, complexity, and the group's experience with similar systems should be included as part of: A) technical feasibility. B) political feasibility. C) operational feasibility. D) schedule feasibility. E) construction feasibility.

Q: To gain an understanding of the organization's ability to construct the proposed system is the goal of: A) operational feasibility. B) schedule feasibility. C) technical feasibility. D) political feasibility. E) construction feasibility.

Q: The analysis technique that finds the amount of time required for the cumulative cash flow from a project to equal its initial and ongoing investment is referred to as: A) return on investment (ROI). B) break-even analysis (BEA). C) net present value (NPV). D) future value (FV). E) currency rate analysis (CRA).

Q: The ratio of the net cash receipts of the project divided by the cash outlays of the project, enabling trade-off analysis to be made between competing projects, is often referred to as: A) return on investment (ROI). B) break-even analysis (BEA). C) net present value (NPV). D) future value (FV). E) currency rate analysis (CRA).

Q: The analysis technique that uses a discount rate determined from the company's cost of capital to establish the present value of a project is commonly called: A) return on investment (ROI). B) break-even analysis (BEA). C) net present value (NPV). D) future value (FV). E) currency rate analysis (CRA).

Q: The current value of a future cash flow is referred to as: A) future value. B) present value. C) investment value. D) discount rate. E) cash flow rate.

Q: The interest rate used to compute the present value of future cash flows refers to: A) discount rate. B) investment rate. C) transfer rate. D) future cash flow rate. E) valuation rate.

Q: The concept of comparing present cash outlays to future expected returns best defines: A) cost/benefit analysis. B) internal rate of return. C) time value of money. D) investment return analysis. E) monetary futures analysis.