Topics Included in the Comprehensive Exam (1)

7/25/2019 Topics Included in the Comprehensive Exam (1)

1/9


2/9

2| P a g e

Module: systems analysis and design

Text and reading materialsThe Required texts are:

Kendall and kendall,2009,Systems Analysis and Design, Sixth Edition

Gary B. Shelly and Harry J. Rosenblatt(2012), Systems Analysis and Design, Eighth Edition:Video

Enhanced

Various types of information systems and explain who uses them

Transaction processing systems

Office automation systems and knowledge work systems

Management information systems

Decision support systems

Expert systems

Group decision support systems

Executive support systems

Systems development life cycle (SDLC):

Stages/phases

Case tools: upper and lower case tools

Alternative approaches: agile approach, object oriented approach

Depicting systems graphically:

E-R diagrams: basics such as entites, attributes and relationships

DFD diagrams: context diagram, diagram 0 (next level), child diagram, partitioning

Usecases and usecase scenarios

Prototyping and rapid application development (RAD):

Kinds of prototypes

Prototyping stages, guidelines, advantages and disadvantages

Phases of RAD

Comparing RAD to the SDLC


3/9

3| P a g e

Module: Organization theory

Text and reading materials

The Required text is:

Jones, G. (2001). Organizational Theory: Text and Cases, 3rdEdition. Prentice-Hall, New Jersey.

# Topics Learning Objectives Chapter

1

Organizations &

organizational

effectiveness

1. Explain why organizations exist and the purposes they serve.2. Describe the relationship between organizational theory and

organizational design and change, and differentiate between

organizational structure and culture.

3. Understand how managers can utilize the principles of

organizational theory to design and change their organizations to

increase organizational effectiveness.

4. Identify the three principal ways in which managers assess andmeasure organizational effectiveness.

5. Appreciate the way in which several contingency factors

influence the design of organizations.

Chap. 1

2

Organizational

stakeholders

Managers and

ethics

1. Identify the various stakeholder groups and their interests or

claims on an organization.

2. Understand the choices and problems inherent in distributing

the value an organization creates.

3. Appreciate who has authority and responsibility at the top of

an organization, and distinguish between different levels of

management.

4. Describe the agency problem that exists in all authority

relationships and the various mechanisms, such as the board of

directors and stock options, which can be used to help control

illegal and unethical managerial behavior.

5. Discuss the vital role that ethics plays in constraining

managers and employees to pursue the goals that lead to long-run

organizational effectiveness.

Chap. 2

3

Managing in a

changing Global

environment

1. List the forces in an organizations specific and general

environment that give rise to opportunities and threats.

2. Identify why uncertainty exists in the environment.

3. Describe how and why an organization seeks to adapt to and

Chap. 3


4/9

4| P a g e


control these forces to reduce uncertainty.

4. Understand how resource dependence theory and transaction

cost explain why organizations choose different kinds of inter-

organizational strategies to manage their environments to gain

the resources they need to achieve their goals and create value

for their stakeholders.

4Basic challenges of

organizational

design

1. Describe the four basic organizational design challenges

confronting managers and consultants

2. Discuss the way in which these challenges must be

addressed simultaneously if a high-performingorganizational structure is to be created

3. Distinguish among the design choices that underlie the

creation of either a mechanistic or an organic structure

4. Recognize how to use contingency theory to design a

structure that fits an organizations environment

Chap. 4

5

A. Designing

organizational

structure: authority

and control

B. Designing

organizational

structure:

Specialization and

coordination

1. Explain why a hierarchy of authority emerges in an

organization, and the process of vertical differentiation

1. Discuss the issues involved in designing a hierarchy to

coordinate and motivate organizational behavior most

effectively

2.

Discuss the way in which the design challenges discussed

in Chapter 4 provide methods of control that substitute

for the direct, personal control that managers provide and

affect the design of the organizational hierarchy

3.

4. Appreciate the principles of bureaucratic structure and

explain their implications for the design of effective

organizational hierarchies

Chap.

5,6


5/9

5| P a g e


5.

Explain why organizations are flattening their hierarchies

and making more use of empowered teams of employees,

both inside and across different functions

Module: Decision support systems

Text and reading materialsThe Required text is:

Turban, G. (2009), Decision Support and Business Intelligence Systems (9th Edition)

,# Topics Learning Objectives Chapter

1Decision Support Systems and

Business Intelligence

1. Understand todays turbulent business

environment and describe how organizations

survive and even excel in such an

environment (solving problems and

exploring opportunities)

2. Understand the need for computerized

support of managerial decision making

3. Understand an early framework for

managerial decision making

4. Learn the conceptual foundations of the

decision support systems (DSS)

methodology5. Describe the business intelligence (BI)

methodology and concepts and relate them to

DSS

6. Describe the concept of work systems and its

relationship to decision support

7. List the major tools of computerized decision

support

8. Understand the major issues in implementing

computerized support systems

Chap. 1

2Decision Making, Systems,

Modeling, and Support

1.

Understand the conceptual foundations

of decision making

2.

Understand Simons four phases of

decision making: intelligence, design,

choice, and implementation

3.

Recognize the concepts of rationality and

bounded rationality and how they relate

to decision making

Chap. 2


6/9

6| P a g e


4. Differentiate between the concepts of

making a choice and establishing a

principle of choice

5. Learn how DSS support for decision

making can be provided in practice

6. Understand the systems approach

3

Decision Support Systems Concepts,

Methodologies, and Technologies:

An Overview

1. Understand possible decision support

system (DSS) configurations

2. Understand the key differences and

similarities between DSS and business

intelligence (BI) systems

3. Describe DSS characteristics and

capabilities

4. Understand the essential definition of

DSS5. Understand DSS components and how

they integrate

6. Describe the components and structure of

each DSS component: the data

management subsystem, the model

management subsystem, the user-

interface (dialog) subsystem, the

knowledge-based management

subsystem, and the user7. Explain Internet impacts on DSS and

vice versa

8. Explain the unique role of the user in DSS

versus management information systems

(MIS)

9. Describe DSS hardware and software

platforms

10.Understand important DSS

classifications

11.

Become familiar with some DSS

application areas and applications

12.Understand important, current DSS

issues

Chap. 3

4 Modeling and Analysis

1. Understand the basic concepts of

management support system (MSS) modeling

2. Describe how MSS models interact with

data and the user

3.

Understand some different, well-known

Chap. 4


7/9

7| P a g e


model classes

4. Understand how to structure decision

making with a few alternatives

5. Describe how spreadsheets can be used for

MSS modeling and solution

6. Explain the basic concepts of optimization,

simulation, and heuristics, and when to use

them

7. Describe how to structure a linear

programming model

8. Understand how search methods are used to

solve MSS models

9. Explain the differences among algorithms,

blind search, and heuristics

10.Describe how to handle multiple goals

11.

Explain what is meant by sensitivityanalysis, what-if analysis, and goal seeking

12.Describe the key issues of model

management


8/9

8| P a g e

Module: strategic Information systems

Text and reading materialsThe Required texts are:

Fred. (2012), Strategic Management, 13th Edition, by David (Prentice Hall)

Keri e. Pearlson and carol s. Saunders (2010), Managing and Using I nformation

Systems: A Strategic Approach


1

The nature of

strategic

management

1. Describe the strategic-management process.

2. Explain the need for integrating analysis and intuition in

strategic management.

3.

Define and give examples of key terms in strategic

management.

4.

Discuss the nature of strategy formulation, implementation,

and evaluation activities.

5. Describe the benefits of good strategic management.

6. Discuss how a firm may achieve sustained competitive

advantage.

Chap. 1

2

The business

vision and

mission

1. Describe the nature and role of vision and mission

statements in strategic management.

2. Discuss why the process of developing a mission statement

is as important as the resulting document.

3. Identify the components of mission statements.

4.

Discuss how clear vision and mission statements can benefitother strategic-management activities.

5. Evaluate mission statements of different organizations.

6. Write good vision and mission statements.

Chap. 2

3

The

Information

Systems

Strategy

Triangle

1.

Determine the role general managers must take in decisions

about IS.

2. Define and explain the Information Systems Strategy Triangle.

3.

Identify and define the various business strategy frameworks.

4.

Explain the information system strategy matrix.

Understand and apply these models to different organizations.

Chap. 1

Reading2

4Strategic Use of

Information

Resources

1. List the identifying factors of the eras of information usage.

2. Know what makes an information resource valuable.

3. Explain how information resources are used strategically in

context of the 5-forces model.

4. Understand how information resources can be used to alter the

value chain.

5. Explain the importance of strategic alliances.

Know the risks of information resources.

Chap. 2

Reading2


9/9

9| P a g e


5

Organizational

Impacts of

InformationSystems Use

1. Understand how the use of information technology impacts an

organization.

2. Identify the type of organizational structure that tends to be most

willing to embrace technological change and sophistication.

3. List the advantages and disadvantages of the networked

organizational structure.

4.

Discuss how IT has changed the way managers monitor and

evaluate

5. Define and explain the concept and importance of virtual

organizations.

Identify the challenges that are faced by virtual teams

Chap. 3

Reading2

Topics Included in the Comprehensive Exam (1)

Documents

Transcript of Topics Included in the Comprehensive Exam (1)