Download ISM 622 – Midterm Exam Questions

ISM 622 – Final Exam Questions
Spring 2001
THE FOLLOWING REPRESENT THE DOMAIN AND TYPES OF QUESTIONS THAT CAN BE
ASKED IN THE FINAL EXAMINATION. Actual questions may not be exactly the same.
1. Describe the major capabilities and characteristics of an Executive Information System (EIS).
2. Describe the similarities and differences between Executive Information Systems (EIS) and Decision Support
System (DSS).
3. Describe four methods for obtaining the information requirements of senior executives.
4. What are critical success factors (CSF)? Describe the CSF method for obtaining executive information
requirements and building an EIS.
5. What is a Global EIS? What should be its scope and some unique features? What are the various sources of
information for the Global EIS? What are some overall approaches for developing such a system?
6. What is soft information? What are its sources, both internally and externally?
7. What are GDSS/EMS/groupware? List the environments of EMS (hint: it is a 3 x 2 x 2 grid and uses group
size, group proximity and time dispersion as the dimensions). Discuss any three of these environments. Include
in your discussion, the type of technologies/computer support/ models that can be used in the environment.
8. What are the typical tasks performed in a meeting? Discuss process losses and process gains in a meeting.
How do EMS affect these process gains and losses?
9. Describe characteristics and capabilities of groupware designed to support different time/different place group
activities.
10. Describe the 2x2 grid for groupware environments in an international context. What are some groupware
challenges in the international arena?
11. What are some common groupware features? Describe the typical processes that may be used in a groupwaresupported meeting?
12. Describe some advantages and disadvantages of using groupware in a meeting situation.
13. Compare human intelligence with artificial intelligence.
14. What is artificial intelligence (AI)? What are the major AI applications? Provide a brief description of each.
15. What are the major AI applications in business? Provide a brief description of each.
16. What are expert systems? Draw a figure, and describe the components of an Expert System (ES) and their
relationships.
17. What is knowledge (in the context of expert systems)? What are its various components and major types?
18. What are knowledge engineering and its various components/stages? Who is a knowledge engineer and what
are his/her roles?
19. List the human roles associated with an ES. What are the desirable qualifications for a knowledge engineer?
20. Describe three manual methods of knowledge acquisition (KA). Include their advantages and disadvantages.
21. Describe the process of knowledge acquisition manually from an expert. List key concerns and issues that you
should pay special attention to.
22. Describe computerized knowledge acquisition (rule induction), and discuss its advantages and disadvantages.
23. What are the major knowledge representation methods? Describe any two of them in greater detail?
24. List some reasoning methods. What are approaches used in inferencing with rules?
25. You should have a clear understanding of forward chaining and backward chaining, and should be able to do
actual inferencing with these methods.
26. What are some methods for representing uncertainty in rule-based expert systems? You should be able to do
some simple uncertainty-based reasoning based on what’s done in class (if we get there).
27. What are the technical and organizational perspectives in building and implementing expert systems?
28. According to the article discussed in class, what factors have contributed to the success or failure of expert
systems?
29. What are data mining and knowledge discovery in databases (KDD)? Describe the steps that compose the
KDD process.
30. Describe, briefly, three data mining methods.