MIS Business Intelligence and Analytics 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: What distinguishes descriptive analytics from predictive analytics?
- Descriptive analytics uses AI; predictive analytics uses only statistics
- Descriptive analytics explains what happened; predictive analytics forecasts what will happen (Correct answer)
- Descriptive analytics is more expensive to implement
- Predictive analytics only works on historical data
Correct answer: Descriptive analytics explains what happened; predictive analytics forecasts what will happen
Descriptive analytics summarizes historical data to explain past events, while predictive analytics uses statistical models to forecast future outcomes.
Question 2: A star schema in data warehousing consists of:
- Multiple fact tables with no dimension tables
- A central fact table surrounded by dimension tables (Correct answer)
- Normalized tables following third normal form
- A single flat table with all data
Correct answer: A central fact table surrounded by dimension tables
A star schema has a central fact table containing measurable business metrics surrounded by denormalized dimension tables providing context.
Question 3: What is the purpose of a data mart?
- An online marketplace for purchasing data sets
- A subset of a data warehouse focused on a specific business function (Correct answer)
- A hardware storage device for backup data
- A tool for creating marketing campaigns
Correct answer: A subset of a data warehouse focused on a specific business function
A data mart is a subset of the enterprise data warehouse containing data relevant to a specific department or business function like sales or finance.
Question 4: Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) in BI are best described as:
- Technical metrics measuring server performance
- Quantifiable metrics that reflect how effectively an organization achieves objectives (Correct answer)
- Employee performance review criteria
- Budget variance reports
Correct answer: Quantifiable metrics that reflect how effectively an organization achieves objectives
KPIs are quantifiable measurements that evaluate the effectiveness of an organization in meeting its key business objectives.
Question 5: What is prescriptive analytics?
- Analytics that describes what happened in the past
- Analytics that recommends actions to achieve desired outcomes (Correct answer)
- Analytics that predicts future events without recommendations
- Analytics that diagnoses why something happened
Correct answer: Analytics that recommends actions to achieve desired outcomes
Prescriptive analytics goes beyond describing or predicting to recommend specific actions that will achieve desired outcomes, often using optimization algorithms.
Question 6: In BI, what is a 'data cube'?
- A physical storage device shaped like a cube
- A multi-dimensional representation of data for OLAP analysis (Correct answer)
- A 3D visualization tool for presenting charts
- A type of database index
Correct answer: A multi-dimensional representation of data for OLAP analysis
A data cube is a multi-dimensional data structure used in OLAP that organizes data along multiple dimensions for fast analytical queries.
MIS Business Intelligence and Analytics 2
What distinguishes descriptive analytics from predictive analytics?