Systems Analysis and Design 6th Edition by Alan Dennis - Test Bank

Systems Analysis and Design 6th Edition by Alan Dennis – Test Bank

 

Instant Download – Complete Test Bank With Answers

 

 

Sample Questions Are Posted Below

 

Multiple Choice:

 

1. A data model is a:
2. The mathematical model of formulas and logic used in a system
3. The abstract creating of an ideal system transformation
4. The model that is produced by extreme programming
5. The expanded, thoroughly balanced and normalized use case for a system
6. A formal way of representing the data that are used and created by a business system

Ans: e

Response:  see Introduction

Difficulty: easy

 

2. A data model can __________:
3. Illustrate return-on-investment, break-even point, and economic feasibility
4. Represent actions or processes that occur in the to-be system
5. Be used as a logical data model in analysis and as a physical data model in design
6. Only be used in BPR situations
7. Only be used with JAD sessions

 

Ans: c

Response:  see Introduction

Difficulty: easy

 

 

3. Which is NOT true about using Visible Analyst Workbench?
4. It can be used with many different databases
5. It integrates the data model with other parts of the project
6. It is a full-service CASE tool
7. Data modeling is one of many capabilities
8. It can generate Java code when the data modeling is done

 

Ans: e

Response:  see Introduction

Difficulty: medium

 

 

4. An entity relationship diagram (ERD):
5. Is a use-case diagram enhanced graphically to show data and process modeling
6. Is a high-level CASE diagram of data modeling used in business systems
7. Is an illustration of external data flows to and from a business systems
8. Is a picture that shows the information that is created, stored and used by a business system
9. Is a graphical display of the processes in a business system

 

Ans: d

Response:  see The Entity Relationship Diagram

Difficulty: easy

 

 

5. On an ERD _________________:
6. Processes are listed alphabetically with relationship connections drawn between processes
7. Data elements are listed alphabetically with a cross listing to the processes that manipulate them
8. Data elements are described as singular (1:1); plurals (1:N); or didactic (M:N)
9. Data elements are grouped in a hierarchical structure that is uniquely identified by number
10. Data elements are listed together and place inside boxes called entities.

 

Ans: e

Response:  see The Entity Relationship Diagram

Difficulty: hard

 

6. Lines on an ERD diagram indicate:
7. Hierarchies between processes
8. Relationships among the data
9. Plurality of data items
10. Uniqueness of data items
11. Primary keys

 

Ans: b

Response:  see The Entity Relationship Diagram

Difficulty: medium

 

7. Which of the following is NOT true about ERDs?
8. Special symbols are added to show high-level business rules
9. The diagrams are drawn in a sequential order – from top to bottom
10. Similar kinds of information are listed together in entities
11. ERD’s are data modeling techniques
12. Lines are drawn to show relationships among the data

 

Ans: b

Response:  see The Entity Relationship Diagram

Difficulty: medium

 

 

 

8. An entity:
9. Is the association between two related processes
10. Has cardinality (1:1, 1:N, or M:N)
11. Shows if it can be null or no null
12. Is a person, place or thing
13. Is described with a verb phrase

 

Ans: d

Response:  see Elements of an Entity Relationship Diagram

Difficulty: easy

 

 

9. Which would NOT likely be an attribute of an entity called “Student”?
10. Age
11. Student identification number
12. Class room number
13. Home phone
14. Gender

 

Ans: c

Response:  see Elements of an Entity Relationship Diagram

Difficulty: medium

 

10. Which would NOT likely be an entity on a car insurance ERD?
11. Customer
12. Policy
13. Agent
14. Zip code
15. Car

 

Ans: d

Response:  see Elements of an Entity Relationship Diagram

Difficulty: medium

 

11. Which would likely be an entity on a car insurance ERD?
12. date
13. Gender
14. company
15. fire district
16. Car

 

Ans: e

Response:  see Elements of an Entity Relationship Diagram

Difficulty: medium

 

12. An ERD is a picture which shows the information that is ________ by a business system?
13. created
14. stored
15. used
16. all of these

 

Ans: d

Response:  see The Entity Relationship[ Diagram

Difficulty: medium

 

 

13. You have entities of ITEM, SOLD-ITEM, SALE and PAYMENT. Which most likely is NOT a relationship?
14. SALE is paid by PAYMENT
15. PAYMENT pays for ITEM
16. ITEM is included in SOLD-ITEM
17. SALE involves SOLD-ITEM
18. PAYMENT pays for SALE

 

Ans: b

Response:  see Elements of an Entity Relationship Diagram

Difficulty: easy

 

14. The lines that connect the entities are referred to as?
15. Data flows
16. connectors
17. relationships
18. crow’s feet
19. foreign key

 

Ans: c

Response:  see Reading an Entity Relationship Diagram

Difficulty: medium

 

 

15. Modality refers to:
16. Relationships of one-to-one; one-to-many; or many-to-many
17. Whether a child entity can exist with or without a related instance in the parent entity
18. The hierarchical structure that was developed in process models applied to data models
19. The number of attributes generated by an entity
20. Whether the entity has a unique identifier (aka ‘primary key’) or a concatenated identifier (aka ‘composite key’)

 

Ans: b

Response:  see Elements of an Entity Relationship Diagram

Difficulty: hard

 

 

16. Jack is developing an ERD for a small dental practice office patient record system. The dental practice has three dentists, six hygienists, and many patients.  A patient is always assigned to the same dentist for all appointments.  In particular, he is working on the relationship between dentists and patients.  Should it be:
17. 1 to 1, with a modality of null
18. 1 to many with a modality of not null
19. Many to many with a modality of null
20. Many to many with a modality of not null
21. 1 to many with a modality of null

 

Ans:  b

Response:  see Elements of an Entity Relationship Diagram

Difficulty:  hard – especially due to the assumptions you have to make about dentists & patients

 

17. Information in the data dictionary is called: _______________
18. Metadata
19. Cached information
20. Compiled data
21. Data repository
22. File silo

 

Ans: a

Response:  The Data Dictionary and Metadata

Difficulty:  medium

 

18. Entity Relationship Diagrams show relationships between entities that are _____.
19. Outputs from JAD sessions
20. Consistent with the ACM guidelines
21. In line with the business rules and processing
22. Defined by the project sponsor
23. Extensions of the process models

 

Ans: c

Response:  See Introduction

Difficulty:  hard

 

19. The three major parts of an ERD diagram are:
20. Process, data flow, data store
21. Attribute, modularity, cardinality
22. Relationship, data flow, entity
23. Relationship, attribute, entity
24. Process, entity and relationship

 

Ans: d

Response:  See Elements of Entity Relationship Diagrams

Difficulty: easy

 

 

20. What is true about creating an entity relationship diagram?
21. There will be at most seven entities
22. There will be at most seven relationships
23. If you identify more than seven entities, analyze and combine until you have seven or less
24. It is an iterative process
25. Entities will have at most seven attributes

 

Ans: d

Response:  see Creating an Entity Relationship Diagram

Difficulty: easy

 

21. In creating ERD’s, which would most likely NOT be a source for entities?
22. Use cases
23. Level 0 DFD diagrams
24. External entities
25. Data flows
26. Cost / benefit reports

 

Ans: e

Response:  see Creating an Entity Relationship Diagram

Difficulty: medium

 

22. In adding attributes to an ERD, which of the following might NOT be a good resource for attributes?
23. From the CASE tool
24. Data flows from DFD’s
25. Requirements documents
26. The system proposal document
27. Through interviews (what users need for reports and processing)

 

Ans: d

Response:  see Creating an Entity Relationship Diagram

Difficulty: medium

 

23. The last step in creating basic ERD’s is to:
24. Identify relationships
25. Define attributes and assign identifiers
26. Recognize entities
27. Test them with users
28. Compile them with Java

 

Ans: a

Response:  see Creating an Entity Relationship Diagram

Difficulty: medium

 

 

24. What type of process is creating an ERD?
25. Well defined process
26. Sequential process
27. Process defined by five steps
28. Iterative process
29. User defined process

 

Ans: d

Response:  see Creating an Entity Relationship Diagram

Difficulty: medium

 

25. Anthony is working on the cardinality of doctors and patients in a large urban hospital. With the large number of doctors with varying specialties and patients that may have more than one aliment, he thinks the relationship might be noted as:
26. 1 to 1
27. 1 to 2
28. 1 to many
29. Many to many
30. Many to 1

 

Ans: d

Response:  see Creating an Entity Relationship Diagram

Difficulty: medium

 

26. Omar has a model with 85 entities. He can:
27. Compress these into at most seven entity grouping units
28. Group these into related subject areas
29. Stop – he has all entities defined
30. Sort the entities alphabetically
31. Co-validate the entities with the level 2 DFD diagrams

 

Ans: b

Response:  see Validating an ERD

Difficulty: medium

 

27. The first step to building an Entity Relationship Diagram is to _____
28. Identify data flows from the level 0 DFD diagram
29. draw the relationships between the entities
30. identify the attributes for each entity
31. identify the entities
32. identify the processes, data flows and data stores

 

Ans: d

Response: see Creating Entity Relationship Diagrams

Difficulty: easy

 

28. When normalizing data models, if you take attributes that have multiple values for a single instance of an entity and create separate entities for those attributes you are moving from:
29. O normal form to 1^st normal form (1NF)
30. 1^st normal form (1NF) to 2^nd normal form (2NF)
31. 2^nd normal form (2NF) to 3^rd normal form (3NF)
32. Generalized normal form (GNF) to fully normalized form (FNF)
33. Dependent normal form (DNF) to Independent normal form (INF)

 

Ans: a

Response:  see Appendix 6A: normalizing the data model

Difficulty: medium

 

29. Independent entities are:
30. When a child requires attributes from the parent
31. When there is only one entity for a data process model
32. When an entity can exist without the help of another entity
33. Where the entity identifier is also the primary key
34. When an entity comes from an external source (aka ‘external entity’)

 

Ans:  c

Response:  see Advanced Syntax

Difficulty:  medium

 

30. A(n) _____ entity is an entity at the “1” end of a relationship or an entity with an identifier that describes only the entity.
31. dependent
32. incomplete
33. independent
34. intersection
35. non-identifying

 

Ans: c

Response: See Advanced Syntax / Independent Entity

Difficulty: medium

 

31. A(n) _____ entity cannot exist without the presence of another entity and is normally on the “many” end of a relationship or has an identifier that is based on another entity’s attribute.
    1. independent
    2. incomplete
    3. dependent
    4. variable
    5. non-complying

 

Ans: c

Response: Advanced Syntax / Dependent Entity

Difficulty:  medium

 

32. The two methods to validate that an ERD is well formed are _____.
33. Balancing with process models and following design guidelines created by Chen
34. Normalization and balancing with process models
35. Renaming theory
36. Balancing with process models and renaming theory
37. Normalization and following design guidelines created by Chen

 

Ans: b

Response: See Validating the ERD

Difficulty: medium

 

 

33. Andrew, an analyst for PaxMedia Inc., has just learned that the business rules for a system he has been working on have changed. This means that _____.
34. Nothing – once the ERD data models have been drawn, they are ‘frozen’ for the system
35. Andrew will be reassigned to a different project that is in its beginning stages
36. The ERD components will have to be changed
37. The ERD data model will have to be put on hold while new DFD diagrams are created
38. The project will have to be scrapped and restarted

 

Ans: c

Response: See Validating the ERD

Difficulty: medium

 

 

34. A logical data model that does not lead to repeating fields and that the data models leads to tables containing fields that are dependent on the whole identifier is in _____ normal form.
35. balanced
36. first
37. primary
38. second
39. third

 

Ans: d

Response: See Appendix 6A Normalizing the Data Model

Difficulty:  medium

 

 

 

35. When the analyst is evaluating a data model to ensure that all fields in a record depend fully on the entire primary key, which step of normalization is being performed?
36. base normal form
37. first normal form
38. second normal form
39. third normal form
40. cannot tell from this information

 

Ans: c

Response: See Appendix 6A Normalizing the Data Model

Difficulty:  medium

 

 

36. If the logical data model does not contain attributes that have repeating values it is in _____.
37. base normal form
38. first normal form
39. non-normal form
40. second normal form
41. third normal form

 

Ans: b

Response: See Appendix 6A Normalizing the Data Model

Difficulty:  medium

 

 

37. If the logical data model contains attribute values that depend on an attribute that is not the identifier, then it is in _____.
38. base normal form
39. first normal form
40. non-normal form
41. second normal form
42. third normal form

 

Ans: d

Response: See Appendix 6A Normalizing the Data Model

Difficulty: medium – it is still in 2NF until the dependency noted is removed

 

 

 

38. Balance occurs between DFDs and ERDs when the data stores _____
39. Are uniquely named
40. Have only one input and one output flow
41. Are named the same as the relationships on the ERD
42. Can be compared to ERD data flows and attributes on the ERD are included in data stores on the DFD
43. Can be equated to entities on the ERD and when entities are referred to by data stores on the DFD

 

Ans: e

Response: See Normalization – Balancing

Difficulty: medium

 

TRUE / FALSE Questions

 

39. Data models can be either logical or physical.

 

Ans:  True

Response:  see Introduction

Difficulty: easy

 

40. During the analysis phase logical data models are created.

 

Ans:  True

Response:  see Introduction

Difficulty: easy

 

41. During the analysis phase, analysts create programming models to represent how the business system will operate.

 

Ans: False

Response:  see Introduction

Difficulty: medium

 

42. A data model is a formal way of representing the data that are used and created by a business system.

 

Ans: True

Response:  see Introduction

Difficulty: easy

 

 

 

43. One of the most commonly used techniques for data modeling is ERD’s.

 

Ans: True

Response:  see Introduction

Difficulty: medium

 

44. ERD’s are drawn in several levels: Context ERD diagrams; Level 0 ERD diagrams; Level 1 ERD diagrams.

 

Ans: False

Response:  see Introduction

Difficulty: medium

 

45. ERD’s and DFD’s are two techniques for data modeling.

 

Ans: False

Response:  see Introduction

Difficulty: medium

 

 

46. ERD’s and DFD’s are two techniques for process modeling.

 

Ans: False

Response:  see Introduction

Difficulty: medium

 

47. A textbook-provided example of a ‘full-service CASE’ tool is Visible Analyst.

 

Ans: True

Response:  see Introduction

Difficulty: easy

 

48. An ERD is a picture that shows how data and information is processed and transformed by a business system.

 

Ans: False

Response:  see The Entity Relationship Diagram

Difficulty: hard

 

49. A graphical illustration that shows the information that is created, stored and used by a business system would be an ERD.

 

Ans: True

Response:  see The Entity Relationship Diagram

Difficulty: easy

 

50. An illustration of the transformation of data into business value is an ERD.

 

Ans: False

Response:  see The Entity Relationship Diagram

Difficulty: medium

 

51. An analyst can read an ERD to discover the individual pieces of information in a system and how they are organized and related to each other.

 

Ans: True

Response:  see The Entity Relationship Diagram

Difficulty: easy

 

52. On an ERD, similar kinds of information are listed together and placed inside boxes called data containers.

 

Ans: False

Response:  see The Entity Relationship Diagram

Difficulty: medium

 

53. An entity is the basic building block for a data model.

 

Ans: True

Response:  see Elements of an Entity Relationship Diagram

Difficulty: easy

 

54. An entity is described by an action verb.

 

Ans: False

Response:  see Elements of an Entity Relationship Diagram

Difficulty: easy

 

55. Entities are further designed with attributes.

 

Ans: True

Response:  see Elements of an Entity Relationship Diagram

Difficulty: easy

 

56. Entities are a person, place, or thing.

 

Ans: True

Response:  see Elements of an Entity Relationship Diagram

Difficulty: easy

 

 

57. In an entity called STUDENT, you might find attributes of Student-ID, Last-Name, First-Name and cell-phone.

 

Ans: True

Response:  see Elements of an Entity Relationship Diagram

Difficulty: easy

 

 

58. In an entity called STUDENT, you might find attributes of PROFESSOR-ID, Last-Name, First-Name and CLASSROOM.

 

Ans: False

Response:  see Elements of an Entity Relationship Diagram

Difficulty: easy

 

59. Relationships are some type of information that is captured about entities.

 

Ans: False

Response:  see Elements of an Entity Relationship Diagram

Difficulty: easy

 

60. Relationships are associations between entities.

 

Ans: True

Response:  see Elements of an Entity Relationship Diagram

Difficulty: easy

 

61. Relationships are drawn with lines showing cardinality and plurality.

 

Ans: False

Response:  see Elements of an Entity Relationship Diagram

Difficulty: hard

 

62. ERD’s can be quite complex and might have hundreds or thousands of entities.

 

Ans: True

Response:  see Creating an Entity Relationship Diagram

Difficulty: easy

 

63. The three steps in creating an ERD are: (1) identify the entities; (2) identify the processes; (3) identify the relationships

 

Ans: False

Response:  see Creating an entity relationship diagram

Difficulty: medium

 

64. The three steps in creating an ERD are: (1) identify the entities; (2) identify the attributes; (3) identify the relationships

 

Ans: True

Response:  see creating an entity relationship diagram

Difficulty: medium

 

 

65. Metadata is data about data.

 

Ans: True

Response:  see The Data Dictionary and Metadata

Difficulty: easy

 

66. CASE tools have ‘data repositories’.

 

Ans: False

Response:  see The Data Dictionary and Metadata

Difficulty:  easy

 

67. In defining the data characteristics of Universal Product Codes, we might describe them as twelve characters made up of digits – numeric only.

Ans: True

Response:  see The Data Dictionary and Metadata

Difficulty:  medium

 

68. In defining LAST-NAME in the data dictionary, we might describe it as a character field having from 1 to 15 alphabetic characters.

 

Ans: False

Response:  see The Data Dictionary and Metadata – you will also need special characters like D’Angelo or O’Brien

Difficulty: hard

 

69. One of the first places to start developing Entity Relationship Diagrams is by looking at the level 0 process models (DFD) and the use cases for data flows and data stores.

Ans: True

Response:  see Creating an Entity Relationship Diagram

Difficulty: medium

 

70. Data modeling is an iterative process.

 

Ans: True

Response:  see Creating an Entity Relationship Diagram

Difficulty: easy

 

 

71. When validating ERD’s you should balance ERD entities with the data flows and data stores from the DFD process diagrams.

 

Ans: True

Response:  see Normalization

Difficulty: easy

 

72. CRUD stands for create, read, update and delete and can be used to verify DFDs and ERDs.

 

Ans: True

Response:  see Normalization

Difficulty: medium

 

Essays:

 

73. What are the three primary components of an ERD diagram?

 

Ans:  Entity, attributes and relationships

Response:  see Creating an Entity Relationship Diagram

Difficulty:  easy

 

 

74. You have a student registration system (simplified) with three entities: Student, Professor, and Class.  Assume standard attributes for the three entities.  What might be the relationships, cardinality and modality between the three?

 

Ans:  answers will vary; but something like:

Professor teach classes (probably 1:M); a class is taught by 1 professor; students take classes (1:M); it might be possible to have a class with no students (so modality might be null) – such as an advanced nuclear physics class taught at 5:00 a.m. ; it might be possible that a professor isn’t teaching this semester (on sabbatical or doing research projects) – so modality of null; could a student not be taking any classes?  If so that could also have a modality of null (might be doing an internship that is not registered with the campus; might be on a study-abroad trip that isn’t for credit and is not registered for; might have dropped out for the semester, etc.); professors have many students and student have many professors (M:N); and again if a professor is on sabbatical or doing research may not have students and if a student is not enrolled, he/she may not have any professors.

Response:  Creating an entity relationship diagram

Difficulty:  hard – mainly due to the number of assumptions which must be made to make a “correct” diagram

 

75. In the sample data for the STUDENT entity, there are repeating values for class and semester attributes. For example Adam Murphy took CIS 370 section 2 in fall 2008; Brenda Olson took CIS 370 section 2 in fall 2008; Jing Zhang took CIS 370 section 2 in fall 2008; etc.  What is the process to modify this entity so that there are no attributes with multiple values?

 

Ans:  This is to put the entity into First Normal Form (1NF).  Generally you will create a new entity Courses-Taken where each course each semester each section is placed and a relationship will be drawn between the entities.  For this example, one entry in the Courses-Taken entity will be: CIS 370-Section2-fall2008 – and a relationship between the courses-Taken and the students will be drawn.

Response: see Appendix 6A Normalizing the data model

Difficulty:  hard

 

76. How do you validate an ERD?

 

Ans:  Creating and validating ERD’s can be tough.  It takes experience to draw ERDs well and there are not all that many guidelines and rules.  You will want to verify that entities are complete (i.e. have all the needed attributes, have consistent names (not client at some point and customer at another point), that relationships are identified and drawn; that cardinality (1:1; 1:N or M:N) is drawn – and if possible M:N cardinalities are avoided by creating entities in between the M:N entities; that modality is identified (null or non-null); and that eventually the ERD is normalized to 3NF.  It takes time and patience to learn and do this!!!

Response:  see Validating an ERD and Appendix 6:A Normalizing the data model

Difficulty:  hard

 

77. Discuss what should be done to ensure that the entity relationship diagrams balance with the data flow diagrams. What is the consequence of failing to balance these models?

 

Ans: The key to balancing these diagrams is to remember that both models must refer to exactly the same ‘data foundation’ of the system. Every entity on the data model should correspond to a data store on a DFD. Also, all the data elements that comprise the data flows in the DFDs should appear as attributes of entities in the data model. Similarly, the attributes of the data model entities should be found in the process models; otherwise, the data is probably not used by the business system and should not be stored. If the analysts do not balance the data and process models, then the system will either omit critical data or will contain unnecessary data.

Response: See normalizing / balancing entity-relations diagrams and data flow diagrams

Difficulty: hard

 

78. Department stores have bridal registries. This registry keeps information about customers (the couple that is to be wed) prior to the wedding and keeps the data for a period of two years after the wedding (for returns or late purchasers), the products that the store carries, and the products that each couple has included in the registry.  Couples typically register for a large number of products and many couples register for the same products. Draw an entity relationship diagram for Target’s bridal registry:

 

Ans:

Couple            (has)                            Registered Product       (includes)         Products

(one to many)                                                   (one to many)

(one couple registers many products)                 (one product is included on many registers)

Response: See Creating an Entity-Relationship Diagram

Difficulty: hard