Deck 12: Designing and Building the Data Warehouse

Question 1

The first step in planning a data warehouse is to define the information requirements of the organization.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

The enterprise model consists of a number of separate models integrated together to provide a comprehensive view of the organization.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

The corporate process model describes the entities generated by the elementary processes carried out by the enterprise.

Answer 3

False

Question 4

The corporate data model represents a highly structured description of the elementary processes within the enterprise that identify the interrelationships among the different processes.

Question 5

The long term benefit of an enterprise data warehouse is the increased integration of business processes throughout the organization.

Question 6

A top-down data warehouse design focuses on making use of data available in the current operational systems.

Question 7

A bottom-up approach to data warehouse brings more benefit to a data warehouse project than a top-down approach.

Question 8

Horizontal integration is the means by which the application designer ensures that the software application is congruent with the stated business requirements.

Question 9

Enterprise integration ensures that each application is fully integrated within its own boundaries.

Question 10

Vertical integration ensures that consistent data definitions occur across the entire organization.

Question 11

One of the most significant data warehouse critical success factors is strong management support.

Question 12

Organizational culture can have an impact on their readiness to develop a data warehouse because data warehouse development implies cross departmental cooperation and information sharing.

Question 13

One common approach to data warehouse project prioritization is to rank initiatives by impact on the information technology organization.

Question 14

One low cost approach to determining data warehouse feasibility is to develop a proof of concept.

Question 15

When the initial scope of a project continues to expand to incorporate new features this is referred to as feature expansion.

Question 16

The first step in developing a data warehouse is to determine the project scope.

Question 17

A project benefit that can be identified with certainty and expressed in dollars is said to be an intangible benefit.

Question 18

The ability to introduce new products would be considered an intangible project benefit.

Question 19

The ability to be proactive in identifying legal issues, thereby foregoing potential financial penalties that might impact a firm would be considered an intangible project benefit.

Question 20

Economic feasibility measures share one concept in common - the time value of money.

Question 21

Which of the following data warehouse design approaches implies a strategic rather than operational perspective?

A) Bottom-up approach
B) Top-down approach
C) Central approach
D) None of the above.

Question 22

When the application designer ensures that the software application is in harmony with the business requirements, this is referred to as:

A) horizontal integration.
B) vertical integration.
C) enterprise integration.
D) None of the above.

Question 23

_________ seeks to ensure that each application under development is fully integrated within its own boundaries and to eliminate any inconsistencies in the final software product.

A) Horizontal integration
B) Vertical integration
C) Enterprise integration
D) None of the above.

Question 24

__________ ensures that there is consistent definition of data and processes across the organization.

A) Horizontal integration
B) Vertical integration
C) Enterprise integration
D) None of the above.

Question 25

Which of the following is not a data warehouse project readiness assessment factor?

A) Strong sponsorship
B) A compelling business motivation
C) An analytic organizational culture
D) All of the above are factors.

Question 26

Which of the following is considered a key question to the success of a data warehouse initiative?

A) What are the key performance indicators used for each of the key business initiatives?
B) What is the potential impact on each of the existing performance metrics with improved access to higher-quality business process information?
C) What does management consider to be the key strategic business initiatives?
D) All of the above.

Question 27

Which of the following is considered to be a project prioritization dimension?

A) Perceived impact on the core business
B) Economic impact on the IT organization
C) Feasibility of staffing the project internally
D) All of the above.

Question 28

Which term refers to the process of developing a relatively low cost prototype to demonstrate that a data warehouse will achieve the perceived benefits?

A) Proof of prototype
B) Proof of concept
C) Proof of benefit
D) None of the above.

Question 29

__________ occurs when the initial scope of a project continues to expand as new features are incorporated into the project.

A) Feature creep
B) Hope creep
C) Scope creep
D) None of the above.

Question 30

Which of the following refers to a perspective from which an argument to pursue an investment can be made?

A) Faith
B) Fear
C) Facts
D) All of the above.

Question 31

Despite increased spending in information technology productivity growth in the U.S. has been stagnant or weak. This phenomenon is referred to as:

A) technology paradox.
B) productivity paradox.
C) productivity paradigm.
D) technology paradigm.

Question 32

A(n) ________ benefit can be identified with certainty and is easily expressed in dollars.

A) intangible
B) tangible
C) enterprise
D) None of the above.

Question 33

A(n) _________ benefit can be directly associated with a project but is not easily expressed in dollars.

A) intangible
B) tangible
C) enterprise
D) None of the above.

Question 34

Which of the following is not a tangible benefit?

A) Increase in process quality
B) Reduction in employee turnover
C) Improving time to market
D) Decreased need for travel

Question 35

Which of the following is not an intangible benefit?

A) Development of new markets
B) Increased competitive advantage
C) More timely information
D) Increased workplace safety

Question 36

Which of the following is an economic feasibility measure?

A) Net present value
B) Breakeven analysis
C) Internal rate of return
D) All of the above.

Question 37

Which economic feasibility measure results in a return on investment expressed as an interest rate?

A) Net present value
B) Breakeven analysis
C) Internal rate of return
D) All of the above.

Question 38

____________ determines the point where the benefits of a project equal its costs.

A) Net present value
B) Breakeven analysis
C) Internal rate of return
D) All of the above.

Question 39

Joining a fact table to dimension tables in a star schema is referred to as a:

A) star join.
B) data mart.
C) fact analysis.
D) dimensional warehouse.

Question 40

___________ determines exactly what constitutes a fact record.

A) Star schema
B) Degree of granularity
C) Data mart analysis
D) None of the above.

Question 41

Define three levels of enterprise integration.

Question 42

What are the benefits realized through a sound data warehouse architecture?

Question 43

List the guidelines for a successful data warehouse project.