Exam+1

Exam #1
Tuesday, October 4, 2011 <>

Exam format:
80 minute exam, during normal class session. Closed book, closed notes, closed-everything. All materials covered in the readings, in class discussions, in exercises prior to class or in class, and in the homeworks may appear on the exam. That said, the goal of the exam is to evaluate how well you have learned the key information in the first few weeks of class, so it is generally an effective strategy to focus your study effort on the topics and issues that we spent significant time discussing during class.

Approximately 50% of the exam questions will directly test basic knowledge and recall of concepts covered in class to date. Example questions of this type might include:

Q1: List the five elements that are part of all information systems A1: Hardware, software, data, networks, people (would also accept business processes)

Q2: True or False: One of the core elements of a Customer Relationship Management system is a shared database of customer information that can be accessed and used by multiple different CRM modules. A2: True. A shared customer database is one of the primary elements of an enterprise-wide CRM system.

Approximately 30% of the exam will be short answer questions. An example question of this type might be:

Q3: List three tangible, and two intangible, resources that a company needs to use to successfully design, build, and deploy an information system. A3: Possible answers include: (tangible) money, people's time, data center facilities, etc. (intangible) management attention, opportunities to pursue other IS projects, employee's willingness to change their work routines and processes, etc.

Approximately 20% of the exam will require you to analyze a situation, make a recommendation on how to proceed, and support your recommendation with evidence and your analysis (this will likely be a small case study).

Please note that these percentages are highly approximate, but they should provide some indication of what to study and how to study for the exam.

To help you study, here is a copy of a previous year's first hourly exam. Please note that the specific topics covered for the first exam are not exactly the same this year as they were for the sample exam. The sample exam should, however, give you a good idea of the kind of questions that I will be asking on this year's midterm exam.