Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Transport

College of Computing & Information Technology

12th week Exam

Course: IS461 Decision Support Systems Lecture Name: Prof. Dr. Khaled Mahar
Exam Date: 24/5/2021 Exam Duration: 60 minutes

Answer All the Following Questions

MULTIPLE CHOICE. Choose the one alternative that best completes the statement or answers the question.

1) In which stage of extraction, transformation, and load (ETL) into a data warehouse are data 1)
aggregated?
A) extraction B) cleanse C) transformation D) load

2) Which data mining process/methodology is thought to be the most comprehensive, according to 2)

kdnuggets.com rankings?
A) CRISP-DM
B) KDD Process
C) proprietary organizational methodologies
D) SEMMA

3) Business intelligence (BI) can be characterized as a transformation of 3)

A) actions to decisions to feedback to information.
B) data to information to decisions to actions.
C) Big Data to data to information to decisions.
D) data to processing to information to actions.

4) For DSS, why are semistructured or unstructured decisions the main focus of support? 4)
A) MIS staff prefer to work on solving unstructured and semistructured decisions.
B) They include human judgment, which is incorporated into DSS.
C) Unstructured and semistructured decisions are the easiest to solve.
D) There are many more unstructured and semistructured decisions than structured in
organizations.

5) In answering the question "Which customers are most likely to click on my online ads and purchase 5)
my goods?", you are most likely to use which of the following analytic applications?
A) propensity to buy B) customer attrition
C) channel optimization D) customer profitability

A-1
 6) Which data warehouse architecture uses a normalized relational warehouse that feeds multiple 6)
data marts?
A) federated architecture
B) centralized data warehouse architecture
C) independent data marts architecture
D) hub-and-spoke data warehouse architecture

7) When an Accounts Payable department improves their information system resulting in faster 7)
payments to vendors, without the Accounts Receivable Department doing the same, leading to a
cash flow crunch, what can we say happened in decision-theoretic terms?
A) profit minimization B) cash flow problems
C) suboptimization D) optimization

8) Prediction problems where the variables have numeric values are most accurately defined as 8)
A) computations. B) regressions. C) associations. D) classifications.

9) How are descriptive analytics methods different from the other two types? 9)
A) They answer "what will be?" queries, not "what to do?" queries.
B) They answer "what-is?" queries, not "what will be?" queries.
C) They answer "what-if?" queries, not "how many?" queries.
D) They answer "what to do?" queries, not "what-if?" queries.

10) Why are analytical decision making skills now viewed as more important than interpersonal skills 10)
for an organization's managers?
A) because analytical-oriented managers tend to be flashier and less methodical
B) because interpersonal skills are never important in organizations
C) because analytical-oriented managers produce better results over time
D) because personable and friendly managers are always the least effective

ESSAY. Write your answer in the space provided or on a separate sheet of paper.

11) Predictive modeling is perhaps the most commonly practiced branch in data mining. What are three of the most
popular predictive modeling techniques?

12) List and describe four categories of models. Give examples in each category.

13) All quantitative models are typically made up of four basic components. List and describe them as well as what
links them together.

14) A store has requested a manufacturer to produce pants and sports jackets. For materials, the manufacturer has
750 m2 of cotton textile and 1,000 m2 of polyester. Every pair of pants (1 unit) needs 1 m2 of cotton and 2 m2 of
polyester. Every jacket needs 1.5 m2 of cotton and 1 m2 of polyester. The price of the pants is fixed at $50 and
the jacket, $40. What is the number of pants and jackets that the manufacturer must give to the stores so that
these items obtain a maximum sale?

A-2
15) Assume min_support = 40%, min_confidence = 70%. Five transactions are recorded in a supermarke

# Transaction Code

1 Beer, diaper, baby powder, bread, umbrella BDPRU

2 Diaper, baby powder, DP

3 Beer, diaper, milk BDM

4 Diaper, beer, detergent DBG

5 Beer, milk, cola BMC

Find frequent itemsets and strong rules

A-3