Business Intelligence

Revision note

What to revise?

• Read all the slides, pay attention to the learning outcomes listed (objectives) in all chapters, ask yourself if you are able to demonstrate the knowledge identified in the learning outcomes

• Revise all the questions discussed in tutorials, if the questions ask for examples, work on providing relevant examples and always try to match with the main objectives of BI in business

• Use table to provide comparison, ensure the points discussed relate to the ones compared to

• Your assignment and midterm are also a good source of practice for your final exam

Help !

Help me to help you – look after the structure, format & handwriting and label your answers accordingly

How much writing is enough?• Look at the marks allocated.• Try to work out the math for the points required in your answer. Example : In Business Performance Management, it has been identified that there are four sources for the gap between strategy and execution. Identify and explain each gap.

[8 marks]Answer:Four sources of gap are :

Vision + explanation (viability, suitability to the organization)People + explanation (are they ready?)Management + explanation (do they agree?)Resources + explanation (are the infrastructure ready?)

(Award 1 mark each for the correct identification and 1 mark for explanation)

Compare and contrast

• Always use table• Identify the basis for each comparison• Try to make a contrasting point for each items to be

compared.

Elephants Cats

Weight 1000kg 4kg

Habitat Jungle Home

Length 5 meter 0.8 meter

?? ?? ??

Segmenting your answer• If ask to identify a few list of items, segment your answer, don’t

combine discussion on all of the items in one paragraph.

E.g. Identifying project activities• Planning: Setting goals and objectives etc……• Data Gathering : Establishing data/information/requirement ……• Design : Based on data gathered ….• Develop: Develop the system …….

rather than

The first process is ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… The second process is ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The third process is ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Answer to the question

• Identify what are the questions that need to be answered.

E.g.• Describe OLAP in detail and explain why it has become important in Business

Intelligence. Include in your answer a discussion on how does OLAP differ from OLTP.

• Describe OLAP in detail and explain why it has become important in Business Intelligence. Include in your answer a discussion on how does OLAP differ from OLTP.

Keywords you must be comfortable explaining

Topic 1 – Understanding BI• Business Intelligence definition• Components of Business Intelligence• Importance to organization• Structured and unstructured decision making

Keywords you must be comfortable explaining

Topic 2 – Understanding BI• Strategy gaps and management of BI in organization• Competitive Advantage• Competitive Intelligence• BI users in organization• Major issues in implementing BI• Business Intelligence in achieving operational excellence,

customer intimacy and product leadership

Keywords you must be comfortable explaining

Topic 3 – Data Warehouse• Differences between data warehouse and database –

characteristics• Different architecture• Different development approach

Keywords you must be comfortable explaining

Topic 4 – Business Analytics & Visualisation• OLAP’s role in BI• Distinguish between OLAP and OLTP• Dimensional database vs relational database for BI, why?• Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and its role in BI

Keywords you must be comfortable explaining

Topic 5 – Data Mining• Data mining characteristics and objectives in business• Types of data mining• Data mining algorithms• Sources of customer data for data mining

Keywords you must be comfortable explaining

Topic 6 – Business Performance Management• Business performance management (BPM) definition• BPM’s closed-loop processes• Strategy gap factors• The differences between scorecards and dashboards• Different types of dashboards• The basics of dashboard design

Question 1

Ubiquity in computing is said to offer capabilities to facilitatedecision support . Explain ubiquity with example.

Question 2

Explain structured decision making with example

Question 3

Explain unstructured decision making with example

Question 4

Explain Business Intelligence

Question 5

Explain strategy gap with example

Question 6

Explain how Business Intelligence can help closing the Strategy gap

Question 7

Identify 4 major components of Business Intelligence

Question 8

Identify and briefly describe the 3 environments in BI

Question 9

Enterprises can maximize their BI investments by achieving operational excellence, customer intimacy and product leadership.

Explain operational excellence

Question 10

Enterprises can maximize their BI investments by achieving operational excellence, customer intimacy and product leadership.

Explain customer intimacy

Question 11

Enterprises can maximize their BI investments by achieving operational excellence, customer intimacy and product leadership.

Explain product leadership

Question 12

Explain OLTP

Question 13

Explain OLAP

Question 14

Explain competitive intelligence

Question 15

Identify and explain one type of BI user

Question 16

Identify and explain one type of BI user

Question 17

Identify and explain one type of BI user

Question 18

Understanding and dealing with the user community is said to be

one of the BI implementation issues. Explain this notion.

Question 19

Explain data warehouse. How does it differ from operational database?

Question 20-23

Explain one out of four 4 main characteristics of data warehousing

Question 24

Explain the data warehousing process

Question 25-27

Illustrate one of the data warehouse architectures

Question 27-31

Explain the following guidelines in considering a vendor for data warehouse project.

– Financial strength– Qualified consultants– Market share– Industry experience– Established partnerships

Question 32-33

Describe the two approaches in data warehouse development

Question 34

• Decsribe data mining and explain its importance to organizational decision making

Question 35

• Describe the 4 common data mining algorithms and their examples of use in business