IMST Information Systems & Technology 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: What is the role of metadata in information systems?
- It stores the actual content of a document
- It provides data about data, describing the structure, context, and meaning of information (Correct answer)
- It encrypts sensitive data for transmission
- It monitors system uptime and performance
Correct answer: It provides data about data, describing the structure, context, and meaning of information
Metadata describes data attributes such as its origin, format, date created, and relationships, making information easier to find, manage, and use.
Question 2: In enterprise information systems, what does SOA (Service-Oriented Architecture) enable?
- Physical hardware virtualization
- Reuse of software services across different applications through standardized interfaces (Correct answer)
- Automatic data backup scheduling
- Centralized user authentication only
Correct answer: Reuse of software services across different applications through standardized interfaces
SOA enables software components (services) to communicate over a network via standardized interfaces, promoting reuse and interoperability across enterprise applications.
Question 3: Which of the following is a key characteristic of cloud-based information systems?
- On-premises hardware ownership
- On-demand resource scalability with pay-per-use pricing (Correct answer)
- Fixed storage capacity with no flexibility
- Mandatory physical co-location of all servers
Correct answer: On-demand resource scalability with pay-per-use pricing
Cloud-based systems offer on-demand scalability, allowing organizations to increase or decrease computing resources and pay only for what they use.
Question 4: What is the primary function of middleware in an information system?
- To serve as the user interface for end users
- To act as a bridge enabling communication between different software applications (Correct answer)
- To provide physical network infrastructure
- To generate business intelligence reports
Correct answer: To act as a bridge enabling communication between different software applications
Middleware is software that sits between operating systems and applications, facilitating communication and data management across disparate systems.
Question 5: An IMST professional is evaluating a system's ability to handle increased workload without performance degradation. What characteristic are they assessing?
- Reliability
- Scalability (Correct answer)
- Portability
- Usability
Correct answer: Scalability
Scalability refers to a system's capacity to grow and manage increased demand—in users, data volume, or transactions—without loss of performance.
Question 6: What is a key difference between structured and unstructured data in information systems?
- Structured data cannot be stored digitally
- Structured data fits neatly into predefined fields (e.g., databases), while unstructured data does not follow a predefined model (Correct answer)
- Unstructured data is always more valuable than structured data
- Structured data requires more storage than unstructured data
Correct answer: Structured data fits neatly into predefined fields (e.g., databases), while unstructured data does not follow a predefined model
Structured data conforms to a defined schema (like rows and columns in a database), whereas unstructured data—such as emails, images, and videos—lacks a predefined format.
IMST Information Systems & Technology 2
What is the role of metadata in information systems?