Sys 210 Final Revision Questions

Chapter 3, 4, 9, 13.

Chapter 9 Revision Questions

1. What are the three levels of management found in a company? What types of decisions are
made at each level?
The three levels of management found in a company are:
Operational, Managerial, Strategic.

• At the operational level, structured, recurring and repetitive decisions are made.
• At the Managerial level, semi structured ad hoc reporting decisions are made.
• At the Strategic level, unstructured nonrecurring, onetime decisions are made.
2. Define transaction processing systems and describe the role they play in a business.
The basic business system that serves the operational level and assists in making structured
decisions. TPS often serve as the payroll system or order-entry system
3. Define decision support systems and describe the role they play in a business.
Model information using OLAP, which provides assistance in evaluating and choosing among
different courses of action. DDSs allow managers to manipulate and change data in order to
analyze the relationships that exist among the data. It allows them to discover patterns, trends,
and exception conditions.
4. Define expert systems and describe the role they play in a business.
Computerized advisory programs that imitate the reasoning processes of experts in solving
difficult problems.
They are a form of AI that include a knowledge base and are an affordable alternative to human
experts.
5. What are the capabilities associated with digital dashboards?
• A hot list of key performance indicators, refreshed every 15 minutes
• A running line graph of planned versus actual production for the past 24 hours
• A table showing actual versus forecasted product prices and inventories
• A list of outstanding alerts and their resolution status
• A graph of stock market prices
6. What are the common DSS analysis techniques?
 • What-if analysis
• Sensitivity analysis
• Goal-seeking analysis
• Optimization analysis

➢ The ways to analyze decision support systems are the "what if" analysis, sensitivity analysis, goal
seeking analysis, and optimization analysis. The "what if" analysis is when the DDS checks the
impact of a change in a variable or assumption on the model. What will happen to the supply
chain strategy if there is a hurricane here and inventory is reduced?
➢ The sensitivity analysis is a special case of what if's is the study of the impact on other variables
when one variable is changed repeatedly. It is useful when users are uncertain about the
assumptions made in estimating the value of certain key variables. Changing prices in small
increments will then allow to see what impact price has on sales.
➢ Goal seeking analysis finds the inputs necessary to achieve a goal such as a desired level of
output. It is the reverse of what if and sensitivity analysis. Instead of observing how change in a
variable affect other variables, goal seeking analysis sets a target value (a goal) for a variable and
then repeatedly changes other variables until the target value is achieved. For example, a goal
seeking analysis could determine how many customers must purchase a new product to increase
gross profits to $5 million.
➢ Optimization analysis is an extension of goal seeking, here it finds the optimum value for a target
variable by repeatedly changing other variables subject to specified constraints. By changing
revenue and cost variables in an analysis like this it allows managers to calculate the highest
potential profits.
7. How does an electronic spreadsheet program, such as Excel, provide decision support
capabilities?
It can contain models that calculate market share or ROI, as well as more complex model.
8. Describe artificial intelligence, and identify its five main types.
Artificial intelligence (AI) simulates human thinking and behavior, such as the ability to reason
and learn.
The five most common categories of AI are:
1) Expert systems—computerized advisory programs that imitate the reasoning processes of
experts in solving difficult problems.
2) Neural networks—attempts to emulate the way the human brain works.
3) Genetic algorithm—a system that mimics the evolutionary, survival-of-the-fittest process to
generate increasingly better solutions to a problem.
 4) Intelligent agents—a special-purpose knowledge-based information system that accomplishes
specific tasks on behalf of its users.
5) Virtual reality—a computer-simulated environment that can be a simulation of the real world
or an imaginary world.
9. Explain the importance of decision making for managers at each of the three primary
organization levels along with the associated decision characteristics.
Decision-making skills are essential for all business professionals, at every company level, who
make decisions that run the business. At the operational level, employees develop, control, and
maintain core business activities required to run the day-to-day operations. Operational decisions
are considered structured decisions, which arise in situations in which established processes offer
potential solutions. Structured decisions are made frequently and are almost repetitive in nature;
they affect short-term business strategies.
At the managerial level, employees are continuously evaluating company operations to hone the
firm’s abilities to identify, adapt to, and leverage change. Managerial decisions cover short- and
medium-range plans, schedules, and budgets along with policies, procedures, and business
objectives for the firm. These types of decisions are considered semi structured decisions; they
occur in
situations in which a few established processes help to evaluate potential solutions, but not
enough to lead to a definite recommended decision.
At the strategic level, managers develop overall business strategies, goals, and objectives as part
of the company’s strategic plan. They also monitor the strategic performance of the organization
and its overall direction in the political, economic, and competitive business environment.
Strategic decisions are highly unstructured decisions, occurring in situations in which no
procedures or rules exist to guide decision makers toward the correct choice. They are
infrequent, extremely important, and
typically related to long-term business strategy.
10. Classify the different operational support systems, managerial support systems, and strategic
support systems and explain how managers can use these systems to make decisions and gain
competitive advantages.
Being able to sort, calculate, analyze, and slice-and-dice information is critical to an
organization’s success. Without knowing what is occurring throughout the organization, there
is no way that managers and executives can make solid decisions to support the business. The
different operational, managerial, and strategic support systems include:
 ➢ Operational: A transaction processing system (TPS) is the basic business system that serves the
operational level (analysts) in an organization. The most common example of a TPS is an
operational accounting system such as a payroll system or an order-entry system.
➢ Managerial: A decision support system (DSS) models information to support managers and
business professionals during the decision-making process.
➢ Strategic: An executive information system (EIS) is a specialized DSS that supports senior-level
executives within the organization.

Chapter Nine Case: Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Grand Challenge

The goal of the DARPA Grand Challenge is to save lives by making one-third of ground military forces
autonomous or driverless vehicles. Created in response to a congressional and U.S. Department of
Defense (DoD) (Department of Defense) mandate, the DARPA Grand Challenge brings together
individuals and organizations
from industry, the research and development (R&D) community, government, the armed services, and
academia and includes students, backyard inventors, and automotive enthusiasts.
The DARPA Grand Challenge 2004
The DARPA Grand Challenge 2004 field test of autonomous ground vehicles ran from Barstow,
California,
to Prim, Nevada, and offered a $1 million prize. From the qualifying round at the California
Speedway, 15 finalists emerged to attempt the Grand Challenge. However, the prize went unclaimed
when no vehicles were able to complete the difficult desert route.
The DARPA Grand Challenge 2005
The DARPA Grand Challenge 2005 was held in the Mojave Desert and offered a $2 million prize to the
team that completed the 132-mile course in the shortest time under 10 hours. The race, over desert
terrain, included narrow tunnels, sharp turns, and a winding mountain pass with a sheer drop-off on
one side and a rock face on the other. Five teams completed the course, and “Stanley,” the Stanford
Racing Team’s car, won the $2 million prize with a time of 6 hours, 53 minutes.
DARPA Robotic Challenge 2015
Machines with human-like abilities have been portrayed in movies and books for a long time. Now they
are coming to life at the DARPA Robotics Challenge, a program created to accelerate progress in AI
development that would allow them to move in to areas too dangerous for humans along with
mitigating
natural or man-made disasters. The $2 million first prize was awarded to the Korean team that built
robot DRC-Hubo. The $1 million second prize was awarded to the Florida team that built Running Man.
The Challenge was a huge success and advances in robotics are being seen in areas around the globe.

Questions
1. How is the DoD (Department of Defense) using AI to improve its operations and save lives?
The goal of the DARPA Grand Challenge is to save lives by making one-third of ground military forces
autonomous or driverless vehicles. Using AI driven vehicles the DOD will be able to send vehicles into
dangerous situations without endangering any soldiers.
2. Why would the DoD (Department of Defense) use an event like the DARPA Grand Challenge or DARPA
Robotic Challenge to
further technological innovation?
Offering a generous prize will attract a lot of smart mind to participate to work on creating autonomous
vehicles. It is win-win, The DoD receives the technology and the winning team receives a prize and
notoriety.
3. Describe how autonomous vehicles and robots could be used by organizations around the world
to improve business efficiency and effectiveness.
There are numerous ways that autonomous vehicles could be used around by businesses from making
deliveries, transporting goods and services to taking employees to and from the airport, for Robotic
process automation (RPA) can help businesses avoid costly human errors. Each year human errors cost
SMEs millions of pounds. RPA tools are designed to continually collect, analyses, and learn from large
amounts of data. As such, robots are far more effective at standardizing processes than human
employees.