Business Intelligence, 3e (Sharda/Delen/Turban)
Chapter 3 Business Reporting, Visual Analytics, and Business Performance Management
1) The WebFOCUS BI platform in the Travel and Transport case study decreased clients’
reliance on the IT function when seeking system reports.
2) The dashboard for the WebFOCUS BI platform in the Travel and Transport case study
required client side software to operate.
3) Data is the contextualization of information, that is, information set in context.
4) The main difference between service level agreements and key performance indicators is the
audience.
5) The balanced scorecard is a type of report that is based solely on financial metrics.
6) The data storage component of a business reporting system builds the various reports and
hosts them for, or disseminates them to users. It also provides notification, annotation,
collaboration, and other services.
7) In the FEMA case study, the BureauNet software was the primary reason behind the increased
speed and relevance of the reports FEMA employees received.
8) Google Maps has set new standards for data visualization with its intuitive Web mapping
software.
9) There are basic chart types and specialized chart types. A Gantt chart is a specialized chart
type.
10) Visualization differs from traditional charts and graphs in complexity of data sets and use of
multiple dimensions and measures.
11) When telling a story during a presentation, it is best to avoid describing hurdles that your
character must overcome, to avoid souring the mood.
12) For best results when deploying visual analytics environments, focus only on power users
and management to get the best return on your investment.
13) Information density is a key characteristic of performance dashboards.
14) In the Dallas Cowboys case study, the focus was on using data analytics to decide which
players would play every week.
15) One comparison typically made when data is presented in business intelligence systems is a
comparison against historical values.
16) The best key performance indicators are derived independently from the company’s strategic
goals to enable developers to “think outside of the box.”
17) The BPM development cycle is essentially a one-shot process where the requirement is to get
it right the first time.
18) With key performance indicators, driver KPIs have a significant effect on outcome KPIs, but
the reverse is not necessarily true.
19) With the balanced scorecard approach, the entire focus is on measuring and managing
specific financial goals based on the organization’s strategy.
20) A Six Sigma deployment can be deemed effective even if the number of defects are not
reduced to 3.4 defects per million.
21) For those executives who do not have the time to go through lengthy reports, the best
alternative is the
A) last page of the report.
B) raw data that informed the report.
C) executive summary.
D) charts in the report.
22) All of the following are true about external reports between businesses and the government
EXCEPT
A) they can include tax and compliance reporting.
B) they can be filed nationally or internationally.
C) they are standardized for the most part to reduce the regulatory burden.
D) their primary focus is government.
23) Kaplan and Norton developed a report that presents an integrated view of success in the
organization called
A) metric management reports.
B) balanced scorecard-type reports.
C) dashboard-type reports.
D) visual reports.
24) Which component of a reporting system contains steps detailing how recorded transactions
are converted into metrics, scorecards, and dashboards?
A) data supply
B) business logic
C) extract, transform and load
D) assurance
25) Which of the following is LEAST related to data/information visualization?
A) information graphics
B) scientific visualization
C) statistical graphics
D) graphic artwork
26) The Internet emerged as a new medium for visualization and brought all the following
EXCEPT
A) worldwide digital distribution of visualization.
B) immersive environments for consuming data.
C) new forms of computation of business logic.
D) new graphics displays through PC displays.
27) Which kind of chart is described as an enhanced variant of a scatter plot?
A) heat map
B) bullet
C) pie chart
D) bubble chart
28) Which type of visualization tool can be very helpful when the intention is to show relative
proportions of dollars per department allocated by a university administration?
A) heat map
B) bullet
C) pie chart
D) bubble chart
29) Which type of visualization tool can be very helpful when a data set contains location data?
A) bar chart
B) geographic map
C) highlight table
D) tree map
30) Which type of question does visual analytics seeks to answer?
A) Why did it happen?
B) What happened yesterday?
C) What is happening today?
D) When did it happen?
31) When you tell a story in a presentation, all of the following are true EXCEPT
A) a story should make sense and order out of a lot of background noise.
B) a well-told story should have no need for subsequent discussion.
C) stories and their lessons should be easy to remember.
D) the outcome and reasons for it should be clear at the end of your story.
32) Benefits of the latest visual analytics tools, such as SAS Visual Analytics, include all of the
following EXCEPT
A) mobile platforms such as the iPhone are supported by these products.
B) it is easier to spot useful patterns and trends in the data.
C) they explore massive amounts of data in hours, not days.
D) there is less demand on IT departments for reports.
33) What is the management feature of a dashboard?
A) operational data that identify what actions to take to resolve a problem
B) summarized dimensional data to analyze the root cause of problems
C) summarized dimensional data to monitor key performance metrics
D) graphical, abstracted data to monitor key performance metrics
34) What is the fundamental challenge of dashboard design?
A) ensuring that users across the organization have access to it
B) ensuring that the organization has the appropriate hardware onsite to support it
C) ensuring that the organization has access to the latest web browsers
D) ensuring that the required information is shown clearly on a single screen
35) Contextual metadata for a dashboard includes all the following EXCEPT
A) whether any high-value transactions that would skew the overall trends were rejected as a part
of the loading process.
B) which operating system is running the dashboard server software.
C) whether the dashboard is presenting “fresh” or “stale” information.
D) when the data warehouse was last refreshed.
36) Dashboards can be presented at all the following levels EXCEPT
A) the visual dashboard level.
B) the static report level.
C) the visual cube level.
D) the self-service cube level.
37) Why is a performance management system superior to a performance measurement system?
A) because performance measurement systems are only in their infancy
B) because measurement automatically leads to problem solution
C) because performance management systems cost more
D) because measurement alone has little use without action
38) Why is the customer perspective important in the balanced scorecard methodology?
A) because dissatisfied customers will eventually hurt the bottom line
B) because customers should always be included in any design methodology
C) because customers understand best how the firm’s internal processes should work
D) because companies need customer input into the design of the balanced scorecard
39) All of the following statements about balanced scorecards and dashboards are true EXCEPT
A) scorecards are less preferred at operational and tactical levels.
B) dashboards would be the preferred choice to monitor production quality.
C) scorecards are best for real-time tracking of a marketing campaign.
D) scorecards are preferred for tracking the achievement of strategic goals.
40) What is Six Sigma?
A) a letter in the Greek alphabet that statisticians use to measure process variability
B) a methodology aimed at reducing the number of defects in a business process
C) a methodology aimed at reducing the amount of variability in a business process
D) a methodology aimed at measuring the amount of variability in a business process
41) A(n) ________ is a communication artifact, concerning business matters, prepared with the
specific intention of relaying information in a presentable form.
42) Travel and Transport created an online BI self-service system that allowed ________ to
access information directly.
43) There are only a few categories of business report: informal, ________, and short.
44) ________ management reports are used to manage business performance through outcome-
oriented metrics in many organizations.
45) In the Delta Lloyd Group case study, the ________ is the stage of the reporting process in
which consolidated figures are cited, formatted, and described to form the final text of the report.
46) In the Blastrac case study, Tableau analytics software was used to replace massive ________
that were loaded with data from multiple ERP systems.
47) ________ charts are useful in displaying nominal data or numerical data that splits nicely
into different categories so you can quickly see comparative results and trends.
48) ________ charts or network diagrams show precedence relationships among the project
activities/tasks.
49) ________ are typically used together with other charts and graphs, as opposed to by
themselves, and show postal codes, country names, etc.
50) Typical charts, graphs, and other visual elements used in visualization-based applications
usually involve ________ dimensions.
51) Visual analytics is widely regarded as the combination of visualization and ________
analytics.
52) Dashboards present visual displays of important information that are consolidated and
arranged on a single ________.
53) With dashboards, the layer of information that uses graphical, abstracted data to keep tabs on
key performance metrics is the ________ layer.
54) In the Saudi Telecom company case study, information ________ software allowed
managers to see trends and correct issues before they became problems.
55) Performance dashboards enable ________ operations that allow the users to view underlying
data sources and obtain more detail.
56) With a dashboard, information on sources of the data being presented, the quality and
currency of underlying data provide contextual ________ for users.
57) Business performance management comprises a ________ set of processes that link strategy
to execution with the goal of optimizing business performance.
58) In the Mace case study, the IBM Cognos software enabled the rapid creation of integrated
reports across 60 countries, replacing a large and complex ________.
59) A strategically aligned metric is also known as a key ________.
60) The ________ perspective of the organization suggested by the balanced scorecard focuses
on business processes and how well they are running.
61) List and describe the three major categories of business reports.
62) List five types of specialized charts and graphs.
63) According to Eckerson (2006), a well-known expert on BI dashboards, what are the three
layers of information of a dashboard?
64) List five best practices of dashboard design.
65) What are the four processes that define a closed-loop BPM cycle?
66) List and describe five distinguishing features of key performance indicators.
67) What are the three nonfinancial objectives of the balanced scorecard?
68) Six Sigma rests on a simple performance improvement model known as DMAIC. What are
the steps involved?
69) What are the basic ingredients of a good collection of performance measures?
70) In the Expedia case study, what three steps were taken to convert drivers of departmental
performance into a scorecard?