True-False Questions:
1. The first stage in the systems development life cycle is analyzing the company’s current system.
2. The first stage in the systems development life cycle is planning the systems study itself.
3. Most systems development life cycles consist of mutually exclusive activities, with little overlap between the stages.
4. Accountants do not have to worry much about systems studies”they are rarely affected by them.
5. The search for more efficient ways to serve customers is an important reason why business organizations perform systems studies.
6. One way to help ensure a systems study uses a “broad point of view” is to assemble an interdisciplinary study team.
7. A study team should approach a systems study with a narrow point of view in order to focus directly on the system and not be distracted by peripheral issues.
8. The members of a systems study team should be from the same discipline or area so that they can work together well.
9. An important first step in the systems analysis phase of a systems study is a preliminary investigation of the system under study.
10. Top management involvement is critical to the success of a systems study.
11. When a waitress delivers food late to a customer because the kitchen is backed up, the “late food” is an example of a symptom while the “kitchen being backed up” is the real cause of the problem.
12. “Analysis paralysis” means “analyzing a system to death” at the expense of reaching a conclusion.
13. The three major types of organizational goals discussed in the chapter are (1) general systems goals, (2) computer goals, and (3) salary goals.
14. It is not important to satisfy top management goals when creating a new information system because most such systems are used by operating employees, not top managers.
15. The information needs of top managers tend to be the most detailed, and focus on short range planning and budgeting.
16. The information needs of operating managers are normally easier to determine than those of top managers because their decision making tends to be better defined and narrower in scope.
17. Studies of AIS outputs should not be concerned with non-monetary figures”these are mostly irrelevant to accountants.
18. Employee behavioral problems are rarely important in systems analysis and design work because most systems are computer-based, not human-based.
19. Systems survey work might include gathering data on an existing information system or observing the current system in operation.
20. An important deliverable from the analysis portion of a systems study is the final systems analysis report, which should be sent to the company’s steering committee.
21. An example of “legal feasibility” is whether or not a proposed computer system can comply with state and federal statutes.
22. A “schedule feasibility” evaluation is not conducted by a study team if a company already has an automated system.
23. “Schedule feasibility” refers to whether or not computer vendors can provide bids in a timely manner.
24. Unless the human element of a systems change is considered, the best designed system “on paper” will often be an operational failure when it is implemented.