MBA 703 STUDY GUIDE ANSWERS AND QUESTIONS
SET A+
✔✔Application Server - ✔✔A category of software used by more advanced distributed
environments that houses business logic for a distributed system. Individual Web
services served up by the app server are programmed to perform different tasks
✔✔Web services - ✔✔software systems designed to support interoperable machine-to-
machine interaction over a network
✔✔application programming interfaces (APIs) - ✔✔The standard method for other
programs to request it to perform a task and defines the kind of response the calling
client can expect back
✔✔Service-oriented architecture (SOA) - ✔✔A robust set of Web services built around
an organizations processes and procedures.
Organizing systems like this, with separate applications in charge of client presentation,
business logic, and database, makes systems more flexible.
✔✔EDI (electronic data interchange) - ✔✔a set of standards for exchanging information
between computer applications.
most often used as a way to send the electronic equivalent of structured documents
between different organizations
Eliminating paper documents makes businesses faster and lowers data entry and error
costs
✔✔extensible markup language (XML) - ✔✔allows software developers to create a set
of standards for common data elements that, like EDI messages, can be sent between
different kinds of computers, different applications, and different organizations
✔✔Benefits of XML over EDI - ✔✔1. easier to code than EDI
,2. more robust because it can be extended
✔✔Web servers - ✔✔serve up Web sites and can perform some scripting.
✔✔Isolating a system's logic in three or more layers (presentation or user interface,
business logic, and database).... - ✔✔can allow a firm flexibility in maintenance,
reusability, and in handling upgrades.
✔✔How are web services and APIs related? - ✔✔Web services allow different
applications to communicate with one another. APIs define the method to call a Web
service (e.g., to get it to do something), and the kind of response the calling program
can expect back.
✔✔Distributed computing can yield - ✔✔enormous efficiencies in speed, error
reduction, and cost savings and can create entirely new ways of doing business
✔✔programming language - ✔✔Provides the standards, syntax, statements, and
instructions for writing computer software.
✔✔Integrated Development Environment (IDE) - ✔✔Provides a developer with a way to
create a program, run the program, and debug the program all within one application.
Most can support several different programming languages
✔✔compile - ✔✔turn the higher-level lines of instructions that are readable by humans
into lower-level instructions expressed as the patterns of ones and zeros that are
readable by a computer's microprocessor
Can be done by an IDE
✔✔Java - ✔✔code with no specific operating system commands.
special Java commands to control their user interface or interact with the display and
other hardware. Java programs can run on any computer that has a Java Virtual
Machine (JVM), a software layer that interprets Java code so that it can be understood
by the operating system and processor of a given computer
isn't optimized to take advantage of interface elements specific to the Mac or Windows,
most Java desktop applications look clunky and unnatural.
✔✔Scripting languages - ✔✔interpreted languages,; programming languages used to
create scripts; execute within an application
VB Script or Java Script. Many scripting languages execute within an application (like
the Office programs, a Web browser, or to support the functions of a Web server). They
, are usually easier to program, but are less powerful and execute more slowly than
compiled languages.
✔✔Scripting languages are ________________ within their applications, rather than
compiled to run directly by a microprocessor - ✔✔interpreted
✔✔Popular programming languages - ✔✔C++, C#, Visual Basic, and Java.
✔✔Most software is written for --------- - ✔✔a platform—a combination of an operating
system and microprocessor.
✔✔Java is designed to be ______ - ✔✔platform independent.
Computers running Java have a separate layer called a Java Virtual Machine that
translates (interprets) Java code so that it can be executed on an operating
system/processor combination
✔✔Activities a firm needs to due after implementing a IS - ✔✔1. providing training and
end user support
2. collecting and relaying comments for system improvements
3. auditing systems to ensure compliance (i.e., that the system operates within the firm's
legal constraints and industry obligations)
4. providing regular backup of critical data
5. planning for redundancy and disaster recovery in case of an outage
6. vigilantly managing the moving target of computer security issues
✔✔Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) - ✔✔All of the costs associated with software
development and documentation, the purchase price and ongoing license and support
fees, plus configuration, testing, deployment, maintenance, support, training,
compliance auditing, security, backup, and provisions for disaster recovery.
✔✔Reasons IS projects fail - ✔✔1. Unrealistic or unclear project goals
2. Poor project leadership and weak executive commitment
3. Inaccurate estimates of needed resources
4. Badly defined system requirements and allowing "feature creep" during development
5. Poor reporting of the project's status
6. Poor communication among customers, developers, and users
7. Use of immature technology
8. Unmanaged risks
9. Inability to handle the project's complexity
10. Sloppy development and testing practices
11. Poor project management
12. Stakeholder politics
13. Commercial pressures (e.g., leaving inadequate time or encouraging corner-cutting)
SET A+
✔✔Application Server - ✔✔A category of software used by more advanced distributed
environments that houses business logic for a distributed system. Individual Web
services served up by the app server are programmed to perform different tasks
✔✔Web services - ✔✔software systems designed to support interoperable machine-to-
machine interaction over a network
✔✔application programming interfaces (APIs) - ✔✔The standard method for other
programs to request it to perform a task and defines the kind of response the calling
client can expect back
✔✔Service-oriented architecture (SOA) - ✔✔A robust set of Web services built around
an organizations processes and procedures.
Organizing systems like this, with separate applications in charge of client presentation,
business logic, and database, makes systems more flexible.
✔✔EDI (electronic data interchange) - ✔✔a set of standards for exchanging information
between computer applications.
most often used as a way to send the electronic equivalent of structured documents
between different organizations
Eliminating paper documents makes businesses faster and lowers data entry and error
costs
✔✔extensible markup language (XML) - ✔✔allows software developers to create a set
of standards for common data elements that, like EDI messages, can be sent between
different kinds of computers, different applications, and different organizations
✔✔Benefits of XML over EDI - ✔✔1. easier to code than EDI
,2. more robust because it can be extended
✔✔Web servers - ✔✔serve up Web sites and can perform some scripting.
✔✔Isolating a system's logic in three or more layers (presentation or user interface,
business logic, and database).... - ✔✔can allow a firm flexibility in maintenance,
reusability, and in handling upgrades.
✔✔How are web services and APIs related? - ✔✔Web services allow different
applications to communicate with one another. APIs define the method to call a Web
service (e.g., to get it to do something), and the kind of response the calling program
can expect back.
✔✔Distributed computing can yield - ✔✔enormous efficiencies in speed, error
reduction, and cost savings and can create entirely new ways of doing business
✔✔programming language - ✔✔Provides the standards, syntax, statements, and
instructions for writing computer software.
✔✔Integrated Development Environment (IDE) - ✔✔Provides a developer with a way to
create a program, run the program, and debug the program all within one application.
Most can support several different programming languages
✔✔compile - ✔✔turn the higher-level lines of instructions that are readable by humans
into lower-level instructions expressed as the patterns of ones and zeros that are
readable by a computer's microprocessor
Can be done by an IDE
✔✔Java - ✔✔code with no specific operating system commands.
special Java commands to control their user interface or interact with the display and
other hardware. Java programs can run on any computer that has a Java Virtual
Machine (JVM), a software layer that interprets Java code so that it can be understood
by the operating system and processor of a given computer
isn't optimized to take advantage of interface elements specific to the Mac or Windows,
most Java desktop applications look clunky and unnatural.
✔✔Scripting languages - ✔✔interpreted languages,; programming languages used to
create scripts; execute within an application
VB Script or Java Script. Many scripting languages execute within an application (like
the Office programs, a Web browser, or to support the functions of a Web server). They
, are usually easier to program, but are less powerful and execute more slowly than
compiled languages.
✔✔Scripting languages are ________________ within their applications, rather than
compiled to run directly by a microprocessor - ✔✔interpreted
✔✔Popular programming languages - ✔✔C++, C#, Visual Basic, and Java.
✔✔Most software is written for --------- - ✔✔a platform—a combination of an operating
system and microprocessor.
✔✔Java is designed to be ______ - ✔✔platform independent.
Computers running Java have a separate layer called a Java Virtual Machine that
translates (interprets) Java code so that it can be executed on an operating
system/processor combination
✔✔Activities a firm needs to due after implementing a IS - ✔✔1. providing training and
end user support
2. collecting and relaying comments for system improvements
3. auditing systems to ensure compliance (i.e., that the system operates within the firm's
legal constraints and industry obligations)
4. providing regular backup of critical data
5. planning for redundancy and disaster recovery in case of an outage
6. vigilantly managing the moving target of computer security issues
✔✔Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) - ✔✔All of the costs associated with software
development and documentation, the purchase price and ongoing license and support
fees, plus configuration, testing, deployment, maintenance, support, training,
compliance auditing, security, backup, and provisions for disaster recovery.
✔✔Reasons IS projects fail - ✔✔1. Unrealistic or unclear project goals
2. Poor project leadership and weak executive commitment
3. Inaccurate estimates of needed resources
4. Badly defined system requirements and allowing "feature creep" during development
5. Poor reporting of the project's status
6. Poor communication among customers, developers, and users
7. Use of immature technology
8. Unmanaged risks
9. Inability to handle the project's complexity
10. Sloppy development and testing practices
11. Poor project management
12. Stakeholder politics
13. Commercial pressures (e.g., leaving inadequate time or encouraging corner-cutting)
