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The Importance of Information Systems Management, 8e (McNurlin/Sprague/Bui)
Chapter 8 Managing Partner–Based IT Operations
1) IT operations budgets contain hardware expenses only, software is budgeted with new
development projects.
2) Disaster recovery planning is typically part of the IS operations budget.
3) System response time is considered an external operational measure.
4) In order to effectively manage IT operations, only internal measures such as network
downtime are needed.
5) According to Congleton, it is easier to recruit IT operations managers than IT project
managers because of the large budgets that they manage.
6) The trend towards client–based distributed computing has made IT operations management
more difficult.
7) Outsourcing is strictly an IT concern and does not involve business drivers.
8) Transitional outsourcing involves long–term contracts to develop and maintain strategic
systems.
9) Outsourcing all or most of a reengineered process is referred to as shared services
outsourcing.
10) Managing outsourcing simplifies IT operations consisting solely of tracking project status.
11) Service level agreements are an important part of any outsourcing relationship because they
specify supplier performance requirements.
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12) Lower labor costs is one of the primary reasons why companies offshore IT services.
13) Offshoring has allowed companies to rapidly expand their IT support staff by transferring
routine work to the outsourcing partner.
14) The most expensive computer crime in the past five years has been financial fraud.
15) Security authentication prevents parties from denying actions they have taken.
16)
The sole job of IT management is to participate in the organization’s quest for technology–
enabling business opportunities.
17) Managing IT operations requires facilitation, mediation, trade–offs, and consensus within
and beyond the IT department.
18) IT Systems operations problems are never obvious to the entire organization.
19) Problems reported by the external operational measures can be generally explained by
deviations in the internal operational measures.
20) When a business unit within an organization acts to optimize its own business objective, it
could reduce the effectiveness/efficiency of another unit.
21) Which of the following is a system operational problem?
A) slow network response time
B) Data is wrong.
C) A database is not available.
D) All of the above
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22) Which of the following is a viable way to solve operational problems?
A) Continuously address the problem at hand and readjust priorities as a result.
B) Buy more equipment.
C) Document and measure solutions to existing problems.
D) All of the above
23)
Which of the following is not an external operational measure?
A) network uptime
B) average CPU capacity
C) system response time
D) All of the above are external operational measures.
24) Which of the following is an internal operational measure?
A) age of applications
B) system downtime
C) program failure rate
D) All of the above
25)
Which of the following is not a trend in operations management?
A) Operations are being centralized.
B) Operations are being offshored.
C) Operations are now integrated into the application delivery process.
D) All of the above
26) Which of the following is a reason that companies outsource IS functions?
A) to focus on core competencies
B) to utilize lower labor costs
C) to increase value to the organization
D) All of the above
27) Project–based outsourcing is also referred to as:
A) transitional outsourcing.
B) best–of–breed outsourcing.
C) collaborative outsourcing.
D) None of the above
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28) When one company becomes the prime contractor for IS operations but utilizes other ESPs
for some work this is referred to as:
A) transitional outsourcing.
B) best–of–breed outsourcing.
C) collaborative outsourcing.
D) None of the above
29) Outsourcing all or most of a reengineered process is referred to as:
A) reengineering process outsourcing.
B) business process outsourcing.
C) best–of–breed outsourcing.
D) None of the above
30) Which of the following is a reason why companies off–shore IT support?
A) to tap into cheaper labor markets
B) to take advantage of a larger labor supply
C) to take advantage of high–quality labor
D) All of the above
31) The most expensive cybercrime in the past five years was:
A) telecom fraud.
B) denial of service attacks.
C) unauthorized attacks.
D) None of the above
32) Which of the following is an approach that hackers use to gain unauthorized access?
A) network sniffing
B) using Trojan horses
C) using viruses
D) All of the above
33) Preventing other parties from denying actions they have taken is referred to as:
A) authentication.
B) nonrepudiation.
C) integrity stabilization.
D) None of the above
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34) A fraudulent Web site masquerading as a legitimate Web site is called:
A) sniffing.
B) spoofing.
C) cracking.
D) charading.
35) To protect against message sniffing, messages should be:
A) backed up.
B) nonrepudiated.
C) encrypted.
D) All of the above
36) The drivers behind outsourcing leading organizations to restructure and emphasize their
core business are:
A) value and focus
B) competitive advantage and value.
C) market conditions and focus.
D) competitive advantage and focus.
E) All of the above
37) In the early days of outsourcing, the organizational goal of outsourcing contracts was:
A) strategic.
B) financial.
C) operational.
D) All of the above
38) E–business outsourcing and IT outsourcing are combining into a new form of managed
services outsourcing that is being referred to as:
A) utility computing.
B) on–demand computing.
C) virtual data centers.
D) grid computing.
E) All of the above
39) The foundations of governing an outsourcing relationship are laid out in the:
A) contract.
B) relationship.
C) project specifications.
D) All of the above
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40) An important attribute of a good SLA is:
A) cost.
B) completeness.
C) metrics.
D) All of the above
41) Briefly discuss the impact that the Internet and Y2K have had on computer operations.
42) Describe business process outsourcing.
43) Identify five ways that hackers use to gain unauthorized access to systems.
44) Describe the five pillars that make up today’s security techniques.
45) What is a firewall?
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46) Describe encryption.
47) Identify three ways that organizations use internal resources for disaster recovery.
Answer: 1. Multiple data centers Companies create DASD farms that can be backed up and
used in multiple locations.
2. Distributed processing critical processing is performed locally instead of
centrally. So that operations can continue uninterrupted when a disaster hits the data
center.
3. Backup telecommunication facilities alternate or duplicate communications
technologies are used in the event of a disaster.
48) List and describe two ways that management can effectively manage IT operations.
49) How can the portfolio approach to IT management improve IT operations?
50) List and describe four changes in the vendor–customer relationship that often occur as an
organization shifts IT management from the more traditional professional services category
to outsourcing.
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