250 Part II • Information Technology
Review Questions
1.Describe the three primary components that make up any
decision support system (DSS) and how they interact.
2.Explain the difference between a specific decision DSS and a
DSS generator. Give an example of each.
3.Describe two examples of specific DSSs that are being used
to assist in decision making. You may use examples from the
textbook or other examples you have read about or heard
about.
4.Explain both data warehousing and data mining. How are
they related?
5.List at least two techniques (decision technologies) that are
used in data mining.
6.List at least three uses of data mining.
7.What is the purpose of a group support system (GSS)?
What are the potential advantages and disadvantages of
using a GSS?
8.Compare the raster-based and vector-based approaches to
geographic information systems (GISs). What are the primary
uses of each approach?9.What are the distinguishing characteristics of an executive
information system (EIS)? Why have these systems become
a part of business intelligence in many companies?
10.What is knowledge management, and what is a knowledge
management system? How does the concept of a community
of practice relate to knowledge management?
11.Briefly describe the several areas of artificial intelligence (AI)
research. Indicate why we in business are most interested in
the expert systems and neural networks areas.
12.Describe two examples of expert systems that are being used
to assist in decision making. You may use examples from the
textbook or other examples you have read about or heard
about.
13.Describe two examples of neural networks that are being used
to assist in decision making. You may use examples from the
textbook or other examples you have read about or heard about.
14.Describe two examples of the use of virtual reality in an
organizational setting. You may use examples from the
textbook or other examples you have read about or heard about.Discussion Questions
1.Review question 4 asked about the relationship between data
warehousing and data mining. In addition to data mining,
which of the other application areas discussed in this chapter
may be used in conjunction with data warehousing? Explain.
2.Two of the important topics in this chapter are decision support
systems (DSSs) and expert systems. Based on your reading of
this chapter, you have undoubtedly noticed that these two
application areas have a great deal in common. What are the
primary distinctions between DSSs and expert systems?
3.Compare group support systems, as described in this chapter,
with groupware, as described in Chapter 5. How do these two
application areas relate to one another? Which one is more
important today? Do you think this will be true in the future?
4.Several examples of geographic information systems were men-
tioned in the chapter. Consider an industry or a company with
which you have some familiarity, and identify at least one possi-
ble application of GISs in the industry or company. Explain why
you think this is a good prospect for a GIS application.
5.Explain the concept of “drilling-down” as used in executive
information systems (EISs). Is drilling-down used in other IT
applications? How do these applications relate to EISs?6.What are the three general approaches to obtaining an expert
system? What are the pluses and minuses of each approach?
7.According to the trade press, the success record of knowledge
management systems has been spotty. Why do you think this
is? What steps must organizations take to give their knowledge
management efforts the best chances of succeeding?
8.Several examples of expert systems were mentioned in the
chapter. Consider an industry or a company with which you
have some familiarity, and identify at least one possible
application of expert systems in the industry or company.
Explain why you think this is a good prospect for an expert
system application.
9.Several examples of neural networks were mentioned in the
chapter. Consider an industry or a company with which you
have some familiarity, and identify at least one possible
application of neural networks in the industry or company.
Explain why you think this is a good prospect for a neural
network application.
10.Which of the application areas considered in this chapter is
most useful to a small to midsized business? Defend your
answer.By contrast, the business manager or a consultant
(internal or external to the firm) is likely to develop many
managerial support systems expressly for the manager. In
most cases, the business manager or consultant would start
with an underlying software tool (such as a DSS generator,
expert systems shell, neural network program, data mining
tool, or business intelligence package) and develop a
specific implementation of the tool that satisfies the need.
The manager is unlikely, however, to develop a GSS, EIS,
or KMS; these multiuser systems are more akin to enter-
prise systems in terms of their acquisition.
All these methods of IT system acquisition—
purchase of a fully developed system, development by the
internal IS organization or an external consultant, and user
application development—will be explored in detail in
Part III.