UNIVERSITY EXAMINATIONS: 20221/2023

EXAMINATION FOR THE DEGREE OF BACHELOR OF BUSINESS

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY/ APPLIED COMPUTING
BBIT 209, BAC 3103: DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEMS
FULL TIME/PART TIME/DISTANCE LEARNING
DATE: DECEMEBER, 2022 TIME: 2 HOURS
INSTRUCTIONS: Answer Question One and Any Other Two Question

QUESTION ONE [20 MARKS]

a) Discuss how can a computer help overcome the cognitive limits of human (4 marks)
b) Distinguish between data-directed and goal-directed analysis in rule-based systems. Which is
preferred for medical diagnostic systems and why? (4 marks)
c) Identify and assess the integration of multiple techniques in DSS development tools. (4 marks)
d) Discuss under what circumstances might designers be more concerned about the
"appropriateness of the format" of the information than the "timeliness" of the information.
(4 marks)
e) Some people believe that managers do not need to know the internal structure of the model and
the technical aspects of modellling. “It is like the telephone or the elevator, you just use it.”
Others claim that this is not the case and the opposite is true. Discuss (4 marks)

QUESTION TWO [20 MARKS]

a) A manufacturing company located in Rochester produces a wide range of consumer products.
The company is planning to produce a new kind of diaper. The managers are concerned about
the success of this new incentive. They have estimated production, inventory, and transportation
costs as well as the monthly demand for diapers. However, since this is a new product, the
management has expressed the following concerns:
 Are the forecasts about future demand, price, and costs reliable?
 Is this product worthy to be invested in?
 What will be the return from such an investment?
 How long will this project take to break even?
 How are the changes in the inflation rate going to affect the profitability (net present value)
of this project?

1
 Discuss in detail how the following decision support tools can be used to answer the questions
posed above ( 6 marks)
i. Forecasting
ii. Sensitivity analysis
b) Zed and Adrian and run a small bicycle shop called "Z to A Bicycles". They must order bicycles
for the coming season. Orders for the bicycles must be placed in quantities of twenty (20). The
cost per bicycle is $70 if they order 20, $67 if they order 40, $65 if they order 60, and $64 if they
order 80. The bicycles will be sold for $100 each. Any bicycles left over at the end of the season
can be sold (for certain) at $45 each. If Zed and Adrian run out of bicycles during the season, then
they will suffer a loss of "goodwill" among their customers. They estimate this goodwill loss to
be $5 per customer who was unable to buy a bicycle. Zed and Adrian estimate that the demand
for bicycles this season will be 10, 30, 50, or 70 bicycles with probabilities of 0.2, 0.4, 0.3, and
0.1 respectively. Create a pay off table using the information above to determine the best action
to take (9marks)

QUESTION THREE [15 MARKS]

a) Kai company operates a rock quarry that provides local stone for landscaping. They currently
have an offer for kshs50,000 to sell the quarry. They are hesitant to sell because they believe
there will be an increase in demand in the next 2 years that would improve their financial
situation. If they decide to keep the quarry, the current buyer would be willing to pay
kshs30,000 in 2 years, regardless of the situation. The management think there is a 60% chance
of an increase, at which point they would operate at a profit of kshs75,000 or sell the quarry to a
new buyer for kshs60,000. If demand does not increase, they would operate at a profit of only
kshs10,000.
Use a decision tree to determine what they should do. (9 marks)
b) We have been asked to create a wine recommender for a restaurant, following these rules. If the
customer is a connoisseur and orders a meat meal (veal, steak or spam) then we recommend the
“Bordeaux”. If customer is a connoisseur and orders a fish meal (salmon, sole or sardines) then
we recommend the “Sauvignon Blanc”. If the customer well informed and orders a meat meal,
then we recommend the “Merlot”. If the customer is well informed and orders a fish meal, we
recommend the “Chardonnay”, and for all other cases we recommend the “House Special.
Create a decision table to help the waiters decide on what to serve using the information above
(6 marks)
QUESTION FOUR [15 MARKS]
a) A national chain of food retail outlets wants to improve its MIS capabilities. Each retail outlet
collects data about the individual sales of products into a separate database which is
implemented using local software and IT platforms. The Managing Director (MD) wants to
access information so that he can monitor company progress towards its sales Key Performance
Indicators (KPIs). He also wants his retail outlet managers (many of whom are inexperienced
computer users) to directly receive:
• a monthly sales report by product type for their retail outlet.
• a report comparing the overall monthly sales performance of individual outlets.
• ad-hoc access to sales data for flexible reporting.
2
Describe and justify a Business Intelligence (BI) system that could be employed to support the
requirements defined by the MD. Make sure that your answer includes a:
 description of how each user role would interact with the BI system in order to request and
receive information,
 discussion of the potential data sources for the BI system and any accompanying Extract-
Transform-Load (ETL) requirements, and
 discussion of how the BI system might be developed using a phased approach.
 type of data warehouse system do you prefer to use and why (15 marks)