Managing Information Technology, 7e (Brown)
Chapter 13 Leading the Information Systems Function
1) 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
2) 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.
3) 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
4) 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
5) 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.
6) 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
7) 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
8) 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
9) 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
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.
11) 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.
12) ________ 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
13) 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
14) 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
15) 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
16) Which performance metric is not part of the typical balanced scorecard?
A) effective governance model
B) innovation learning
C) customer satisfaction
D) financial performance
17) 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
18) 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
19) 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
20) 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
21) 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
22) “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.
23) 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
24) 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.
25) The ITIL framework was developed by a branch of the British government to provide
standardization in chargeback systems.
26) A shared services unit may include not only the IS organization but also other functional
support organizations (such as legal or human resource departments).
27) Many technology decisions involve trade-off decisions from a service delivery perspective.
28) When to abandon a legacy system, versus continuing to incur application maintenance costs,
is a key application management issue.
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29) In many organizations, an IS steering committee or advisory board is responsible for
approving and prioritizing IT investments.
30) 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.
31) Physically locating IS personnel within the business units they are supporting is a common
mechanism for fostering strong business/IT relationships.