Deck 13: Leading the Information Systems Function

Question 1

The most common benefit from offshore outsourcing to a business in a developed country is:

A) higher quality of services.
B) cost savings due to lower labor market costs.
C) the ability to expand globally.
D) use of state-of-the-art technology.

Answer 1

B

Question 2

________ IS governance designs are often found in organizations with highly autonomous business units that see no major benefits from sharing IS applications and other IT resources.

A) Customized
B) Centralized
C) Decentralized
D) Federal

Answer 2

C

Question 3

In general,the largest percentage of an IS organization's annual budget is for:

A) IS personnel.
B) organizational data.
C) Internet communications.
D) the applications portfolio.

Answer 3

A

Question 4

Which of the following is a potential downside to the IT outsourcing of computer operations?

A) contracts can span 5-10 years or more
B) increased security risks for organizational data
C) difficulties in bringing IT operations back in-house
D) all of the above

Question 5

Application outsourcing to countries that are geographically closer to a company's headquarters and in an overlapping time zone is referred to as:

A) proximity development centers.
B) near-shore outsourcing.
C) multisourcing.
D) captive sourcing.

Question 6

Organizations that choose a ________ design are attempting to achieve the benefits of both the centralized and decentralized designs by centralizing computer operations and decentralizing application development and maintenance.

A) classic
B) federal
C) mixed
D) split

Question 7

Which of the following is a common practice for retaining IT workers?

A) providing management training and development
B) salaries lower than the market demands
C) requiring employees to telecommute
D) none of the above

Question 8

Which of the following is a popular tool used to assess the overall performance of the IS organization,not just the financial impacts?

A) chargeback system
B) business manager satisfaction surveys
C) financial cost-benefit analysis
D) balanced scorecard

Question 9

According to a survey of U.S.managers,which of the following IS skills are likely to be least critical to maintain in-house and most likely to be outsourced?

A) project management skills
B) business domain skills
C) systems analysis and design skills
D) computer programming with a 3rd-generation language

Question 10

Chargeback transfer prices are often established for all of the following except:

A) IS personnel time.
B) number of IS managers on staff.
C) disk file space utilized.
D) usage of help desk support.

Question 11

Which performance metric is not part of the typical balanced scorecard?

A) effective governance model
B) innovation learning
C) customer satisfaction
D) financial performance

Question 12

Which of the following has led to changes in the IS role within today's organizations?

A) rapid technological changes in information technology
B) the extent to which IS plays a strategic role in the organization
C) the pervasiveness of IT in business activities
D) all of the above

Question 13

Which statement is true about an account manager position?

A) approves new IS application development requests for the IS account
B) manages the IS relationship with a specific unit
C) is the financial manager for the IS organization
D) is the head trainer for a specific unit

Question 14

Which of the following is a CMM maturity level focus area?

A) repeatable, necessary processes
B) defined, documented software engineering processes
C) optimized, continuous process improvement
D) creative, ad hoc processes

Question 15

The standard performance metrics for new applications projects include all of the following except:

A) high-quality
B) delivered on time
C) defined processes
D) within budget

Question 16

IS managers may report to:

A) a business unit manager.
B) an IS leader of an IS group within a functional unit (finance, marketing, etc.).
C) an IS leader in a corporate IS unit that supports the entire organization.
D) any of the above

Question 17

Which is important when selecting an outsourcing vendor?

A) vendor reputation in the industry
B) financial health of the vendor company
C) established record for good customer support
D) all of the above

Question 18

Which of the following can be a benefit of a well-designed chargeback system?

A) IS organization accountability is moved to the business units.
B) SLAs can be avoided.
C) Business managers can make changes to IS resource usage to take advantage of IS service pricing.
D) all of the above

Question 19

Which of the following is a characteristic of a good IS chargeback system?

A) understandable charges
B) regular and prompt feedback on charges accrued
C) charges related to business benefits
D) all of the above

Question 20

An IS steering committee or advisory board is typically not effective at which of the following tasks?

A) approving system design documents
B) setting priorities for systems development projects
C) monitoring progress of IT projects against established timelines and budgets
D) developing shared business/IT responsibility and accountability

Question 21

Decentralized IS designs are found in companies with highly autonomous business units that can achieve only minimal benefits from sharing IS operations or applications with other business units.

Question 22

Which of the following is not an IT asset that IS leaders are responsible for managing?

A) technology asset
B) outsourcing asset
C) human resources asset
D) business/IT relationship asset

Question 23

"Best shore" outsourcing refers to:

A) using a vendor based on the East or West coast of the U.S.
B) using a vendor that is geographically closest to the client firm headquarters.
C) keeping all IS work in-house.
D) choosing the best geographic site where the client firm already has a presence.

Question 24

Physically locating IS personnel within the business units they are supporting is a common mechanism for fostering strong business/IT relationships.

Question 25

When to abandon a legacy system,versus continuing to incur application maintenance costs,is a key application management issue.

Question 26

The ITIL framework was developed by a branch of the British government to provide standardization in chargeback systems.

Question 27

Which of the following is a potential benefit of a PMO?

A) repeatable, well-honed project management processes
B) proven change management techniques
C) post-project review procedures
D) all of the above

Question 28

Which statement about telecommuters is true?

A) All "white collar" work is suitable for telecommuting.
B) IBM is an example of an organization that achieved significant cost savings due to the need for less office space for sales office personnel.
C) Telecommuters generally believe they have better opportunities for developing relationships with co-workers than those who work in offices.
D) No special security or legal issues need to be addressed when implementing a telecommuting program.

Question 29

In many organizations,an IS steering committee or advisory board is responsible for approving and prioritizing IT investments.

Question 30

Many technology decisions involve trade-off decisions from a service delivery perspective.

Question 31

A shared services unit may include not only the IS organization but also other functional support organizations (such as legal or human resource departments).