Chapter 11 Test Bank

Chapter 11 Data Storage Designpage 1

Chapter 11 Data Storage Design Multiple Choice

The data storage design activity is done in which phase of the Systems Development Life Cycle?PlanningAnalysisDesignImplementationEvaluation

Ans: c

Response: see Introduction

Difficulty: easy

An activity of the data storage design process is to:Convert logical ERDs into physical ERDsConvert logical use cases into physical use casesConvert program specifications into actual codeConvert flat files into Access database tablesB and C above

Ans: a

Response: see Introduction and Moving from Logical to Physical Data Models

Difficulty: medium

Which of the following is not a general function of any application program?Data storagePresentation logicData access logicLinked-list modulesApplication logic

Ans: d


Difficulty: hard

The two basic formats for data storage:Spreadsheets and documentsFiles and databasesDatabases and presentationsFlash and web formsERDs and Use cases

Ans: b


Difficulty: hard

Which of the following is an open source DBMS?Microsoft AccessSQL ServerMySQLExcelCASE

Ans: c

Response: see Data Storage Formats

Difficulty: medium

Which is not an enterprise DBMS?Microsoft AccessSQL ServerOracleDB2Jasmine

Ans: a


Difficulty: medium

Juan is using a file that is created by an older, legacy system. It is likely that the data is:UnusableIn a proprietary formatIn a standard format (like comma separated value)Is sorted by customers middle nameIn a object-oriented structure like Ariel

Ans: b

Response: see Files

Difficulty: medium

Which of the following is NOT a file type described in the textbook?History filesAudit filesLook-up filesAlgebra filesTransaction files

Ans: d

Response: see Files

Difficulty: medium

This type of file stores core information that is important to the business and for the application (such as customer mailing lists).History FilesAudit filesMaster filesTransaction filesIntelligent files

Ans: c

Response: see Files

Difficulty: hard

This type of file is used to update a master file:Roster FilesTraining filesMaster filesTransaction filesIntegrated files

Ans: d

Response: see Files

Difficulty: hard

This type of file records before and after images of data as the data gets altered.Intelligent filesAudit filesMaster filesRaw filesPrime files

Ans: b

Response: see Files

Difficulty: hard

Which is NOT a type of database file?Hierarchical databasesRelational databasesObject databasesMultidimensional databasesFederal database

Ans: e

Response: see Databases

Difficulty: hard

Legacy databases might include ________ and ______________Master files and transaction filesAudit files and look-up filesHierarchical databases and network databasesTree databases and leaf databasesRed databases and Green databases

Ans: c

Response: see Databases

Difficulty: hard

The most popular type of database today is the:Hierarchical databaseTree databaseGreen databaseRelational database Piecemeal database

Ans: d

Response: see Relational Databases

Difficulty: medium

Most relational database systems support:Referential integrityPop-up menusCustomizable user-interface colors and graphicsThe three-clicks ruleBroadband connectivity

Ans: a


Difficulty: medium

The acronym for the standard language used to access data in relational databases is:ERDCRMERPBPRSQL

Ans: eResponse: see Relational Databases

Difficulty: medium

Which of the following is NOT a relational database management system product?MySQLAccessPhotoshopOracleInformix

Ans: c


Difficulty: easy

A pure OODBMS product named in the textbook is:BelleArielJasmineEmeraldInformix

Ans: c

Response: See Object Databases

Difficulty: medium

Object databases support the concept that all things have both _______ and _____________.Length and widthDepth and staturePrimary keys and secondary keysPositives and negativesData and processes

Ans: e

Response: see object databases

Difficulty: medium

Which of the following is a concept not generally associated with decision support systems?Data warehousesData martsAggregated dataObject orientationMultidimensional databases

Ans: d

Response: see Multidimensional Databases

Difficulty: hard

A type of relational database that is used extensively in data warehousing is:Multidimensional databasesVisio databasesBrick-and-mortar databasesStacking databasesMore than one of the above

Ans: a

Response: see Multidimensional databases

Difficulty: easy

In most cases, decision support systems are best at:Finding particular records that are stored in legacy databasesFinding processes that are stored in object databasesFinding aggregated dataAnalyzing audit (or log) files for possible intrusion and security breaches Red and green linked list processing

Ans: c


Difficulty: hard

Omar is creating an order database for a multiple site car dealership. The data will be fairly simple: names, addresses, city, state, zipcode, make of car, model, style, color, etc. Probably the best choice for him would be a _____________ database.MultidimensionalHierarchical Legacy Object Relational

Ans: e

Response: see Data types

Difficulty: medium

Marco is working for iTunes and needs to have a database that can store complex data. His best choice might be:An object database A relational databaseA red-green databaseA tree databaseA spanning database

Ans: a

Response: see Data Types

Difficulty: medium

FoodTitan is a large grocery store chain in the Chicago, Milwaukee, and the Upper Midwest. Generally their stores have from 18 to 36 checkout lanes with scanners. When somebody scans a bar code, the system is probably using a _____ to process the purchased items.Executive support system (ESS)Barcode processing system (BPS)Management information system (MIS)Transaction Processing system (TPS)A grocery store processing system (GSPS)

Ans: d

Response: see Types of Applications Systems

Difficulty: medium

The type of processing system that creates reports for supervisors (and other functional users) probably would be a:Transaction Processing System (TPS)Management Information System (MIS)Executive Support System (ESS)Decision Support System (DSS)Rebate Management System (RMS)

Ans: b

Response: see Type of Application System

Systems that support decision making will probably:Do a lot of updating of data Be transaction processing systemsBe audit filesUse Gantt chartsUsually just read data and often in ad hoc ways

Ans: e

Response: see Type of Application System

Difficulty: medium

The project team is very knowledgeable about relational database management systems. In terms of feasibility, this might be best known as:Technical feasibility (can we build it)Economic feasibility (should we build it)Managerial feasibility (why would we build it)Graphical feasibility (does it fit this project)Organizational feasibility (if we build it, will they use it)

Ans: a

Response: See Existing Storage Formats (and chapter 2)

Difficulty: medium

Leon has been reading about new technologies in data storage and he is really excited about object databases. In particular, the new SANS storage with fiber optic connection was recently written up in CIO Magazine as an exciting new development on the database scene. The project team should:Go with Leons idea as it seems to be an exciting developmentGo with a cube database system as it might be the bridge between SANS storage/ object databases and relational databasesIgnore Leon as a terrible dreamer who has no concept of realityDiscuss the options as a group, but try to caution Leon about the potential steep learning curve None of the above

Ans: d

Response: See Future Needs

Difficulty: hard

Which is NOT a step in moving from a logical data model to a physical data model?Change entities to tables (or files)Change data flows to create / read / update / delete (CRUD) operationsChange Attributes to FieldsAdd primary keysAdd foreign keys

Ans: b

Response: See Moving from Logical to Physical Data Models

Difficulty: hard

The purpose of creating physical ERDs is to:Show implementation details and to explain more about the how of the final systemNormalize the database to third normal formDo a new technology analysisDrive the users nutsHelp junior analysts to find the transactions between systems

Ans: a


Difficulty: hard

Which is not a common data type?CharacterTextIntegerDateVideo

Ans: e


Difficulty: medium

A default value is:The first value in a tableThe median value in a tableThe smallest value in a tableA value that probably occurs most frequentlyA mistake made by Dee (aka the name Dees fault)

Ans: d

Response: see The Physical Entity Relationship Diagram

Difficulty: hard

Primary keys are:The same as default keys (or default values)Unique values for each record in a file or tableElementary values (like primary school)Prime numbers in a Fibonacci sequenceThe same as foreign keys

Ans: b

Response: see The Physical Entity Relationship Diagram

Difficulty: hard

When you join two relational database tables together, frequently the primary key in one table will be a ____________ in the other table.Foreign keyInternational keyPrimary keyLinked listEntity

Ans: a

Response: See The Physical Entity Relationship Diagram

Difficulty: medium

Which is not an element of a CRUD matrix?Combine or joinUpdate or refreshErase or deleteRead or retrieveMake or create

Ans: a

Response: See The Physical Entity Relationship Diagram

Difficulty: hard

The CRUD matrix showsThe crud that is coming into the system and how to quarantine itExactly how data are used and created by the major processes in the systemThe 1:M relationships on an ERD diagramThe external entities, process and major data flows from the Context DFD diagramWhere customer, relationships, users and developers will interact with a system

Ans: b

Response: See Revisiting the CRUD Matrix

Difficulty: hard

Ralph is looking at a table with the following key fields:

Order IDCustomer ID

2156428

2157873

2158201

2159428

2160043

2161195

This table:

Is table is not fully normalized Is in third normal formHas a primary key of customer idHas a foreign key of order idCannot be fully evaluated from the data provided

Ans: e

Response: see Moving from Logical to Physical data models

Difficulty: medium

The most efficient tables (in terms of storage efficiency) in relational database management systems:Have duplicate data, especially for when more than one table is joined together for queriesHave no redundant dataAre denormalizedHave entire tables duplicated Use plasma technologies

Ans: b

Response: see Optimizing storage efficiency

Difficulty: medium

Null values Are valuable in database storage as they provide space for growthWill be replaced with zeros when the tables are optimizedThreaten data integrity because they are difficult to interpretOnly exist in multidimensional databasesHave been outlawed by California and six other states

Ans: c


Difficulty: hard

Barb is working on a database design. For the most efficient storage she should remove: ______ and ______.Primary keys and foreign keysInternational keys and redundancyAdjectives and adverbsRedundancy and null valuesSpecial characters and primary keys

Ans: d


Difficulty: hard

Generally, the best way to optimize data storage for efficiency is:NormalizationRedundancyNull valuesInsertion of hard returns after all fieldsThrough minimizing the data to be collected to no more than seven fields per table

Ans: a


Difficulty: hard

In a registration database, Ross has tables for student, professor, classroom, class, class-hour. Since his campus has about 12,000 students, when he runs queries about what student is in what class, taught by what professor in what classroom at which hour, the DBMS software will have to perform many _________AxesParallelsConcretesJoinsEnrolls

Ans: d

Response: see Optimizing access speed

Difficulty: medium

One common method to increase access speed is to:Use legacy databases in a indexed sequential access methodEncrypt all data with 256 byte encryptionDenormalize the tablesDelete all primary keysOnly use alphabetic data

Ans: c

Response: see Denormalization

Difficulty: medium

Which of the following is NOT a possible process in denormalization?Include a parent entitys attributes in its child entry on the physical data modelLook carefully at relationships to see which entities are frequently accessed togetherRewarding abnormal actions with more processing MIPSDevelop look-up tables that include the description along with the codeUse a star schema design to imitate a multidimensional database

Ans: c

Response: see Denomalization

Difficulty: medium

The concept of putting records that are somehow related together on the same server (or storage device) is called:CarmelizationClusteringJoiningNormalizationHybrid technologies

Ans: b

Response: see Clustering

Difficulty: medium

A good time-saver for accessing data might be the use of:A red-green treePERTAn indexRelational calculusInverted menus

Ans: c

Response: see Indexing

Difficulty; easy

The concept for planning good performance of databases is known as:VolumetricsEconometricsMoving averagesCorrelationPERT

Ans: a

Response: see Estimating storage size

Difficulty: hard

Volumetrics is:The use of indexes for each tableThe joining of primary keys, secondary keys and foreign keys.The estimating of the amount of data that the hardware will need to supportMuting the sound aspects of multimedia files on multidimensional databasesWhen one overuses hairspray

Ans: c


Difficulty: hard

Many ________ tools like ERwin can help you with database size information and the calculation of volumetrics.ERD masterDFD masterDenormalizationPop-up menu CASE

Ans: e


Difficulty: medium

Chapter 11 Data storage design true / false

One of the activities of the design phase is to design the data storage component of the system.

Ans: True


Difficulty: easy

Data storage components are designed and developed by the programming staff in the Implementation phase of the SDLC.

Ans: False


Difficulty: easy

Data is generally stored in one of two different formats: as files or as databases.

Ans: True


Difficulty: easy

One of the goals of the data storage design activity in the Design Phase of the SDLC is to revise logical use cases into physical use cases.

Ans: False


Difficulty: medium

Applications are of little use without the data that they support.

Ans: True


Difficulty: easy

Changing the logical data model into a physical data model is one of the activities of data storage design.

Ans: True


Difficulty: easy

Mike is an analyst doing data storage design activities. He will probably want to make sure that the DFDs and the ERDs balance.

Ans: True


Difficulty: easy

One activity in the data storage design activity is to update the CRUDE matrix.

Ans: False

Response: see Introduction (it is CRUD)

Difficulty: medium

Sometimes in data storage design there will need to be trade-offs between storage efficiency and processing speed and efficiency.

Ans: True


Difficulty: easy

One goal is data storage design is to spread the data over all storage devices so that the redundancy will make for more efficient storage.

Ans: False


Difficulty: medium

Files are paper files that have been scanned into PDF files for quicker access.

Ans: False


Difficulty: medium

DBMS stands for Direct Binary Manipulation System.

Ans: False


Difficulty: medium

Microsoft Access is an end-user DBMS.

Ans: True


Difficulty: medium

MySQL is a popular database management system made by Microsoft.

Ans: False


Difficulty: medium

DB2 is a enterprise database management system.

Ans: True


Difficulty: medium

The most popular kind of database for applications development today is the relational database.

Ans: True


Difficulty: easy

Most relational database management systems support sticky quantitative processing.

Ans: False


Difficulty: medium

Referential integrity is the idea of ensuring that values linking the tables together through the primary and foreign keys are valid and correctly synchronized.

Ans: True


Difficulty: medium

The standard method language for accessing the data in relational database tables is: SQL Standard Query Logic.

Ans: False

Response: see Relational Databases (structured query languages)

Difficulty: medium

Relational databases are based on collections of tables each of which has a primary key.

Ans: True


Difficulty: easy

An international key is used to relate two tables together (like customer ID from the customer table is an international key in the order table).

Ans: False

Response: see Relational Databases (foreign key)

Difficulty: medium

Jasmine is an example of an object-oriented database system.

Ans: True

Response: see Object Databases

Difficulty: medium

Object databases are build on the concept that all things should be treated as objects that have both data and processes.

Ans: True


Difficulty: easy

A great advantage of object oriented database management systems is their easy of learning.

Ans: False


Difficulty: medium

Informix is a pure OODBMS package.

Ans: False

Response: see Relational databases

Difficulty: medium

A relational database that is used extensively in data warehousing is a multidimensional database.

Ans: True

Response: see Multidimensional Databases

Difficulty: medium

Data warehousing is the practice of taking data from a companys transaction processing systems, transforming the data and storing the data for use in decision support systems.

Ans: True


Difficulty: easy

Data marts are larger, aggregated legacy databases.

Ans: False


Difficulty: medium

A DSS is a design support structure and does the ETL (extract, transform and load) to create data warehouses.

Ans: False


Difficulty: hard

Decision support systems are not designed to find individual records, but to find aggregated information (such as what three products sold the best in Boston in February).

Ans: True


Difficulty: medium

When working on a major project, project teams will always select and stay with only one database format for consistency of development and use.

Ans: False

Response: See Selecting a Storage format

Difficulty: medium

Maria is working for the Minneapolis Dance Troop (MDT) and wants a database that can support text, numbers, video, and audio. She will probably select the multidimensional database format.

Ans: False

Response: See Selecting a Storage Format

Difficulty: medium

Brian wants an e-commerce system to be able to do a lot of rapid processing like search for particular keywords in documents; return the price of an item; update quantities in the shopping cart. He is probably building an Expert System.

Ans: False

Response: See Selecting a storage format

Difficulty: medium

MIS stands for Management Information Systems.

Ans: True

Response: See Selecting a storage format

Difficulty: easy

Rachel wants aggregated data like find the number of banking customers who have savings accounts over $100,000 and home mortgages with her bank. She probably wants to use a Decision Support System.

Ans: True

Response: See Selecting a Storage format

Difficulty: medium

Transaction processing systems and decision support systems will generally have very different data storage needs.

Ans: True

Response: See Type of Application System

Difficulty: easy

Systems to support decision making generally need to update data frequently with a large volume of data.

Ans: False

Response: See Type of Application System

Difficulty: medium

Technical feasibility might play a major part in selecting a database system (for example, if a project group and development group are very familiar with relational databases, it might be best to stay with relational databases).

Ans: True

Response: See Existing Storage Formats

Difficulty: easy

One process when considering data storage design is to move from physical data models to logical data models.

Ans: False


Difficulty: medium

When changing logical data models to physical data models, you will want to change entities to tables or files.

Ans: True


Difficulty: medium

When changing from logical data models to physical data models, you will want to change the attributes of the logical ERD to fields in the physical ERD.

Ans: True


Difficulty: medium

Sanjay is creating a screen form that interfaces with a relational database. He should use the median (middle) value in the database as his default value as that will make it easier for the users to move up and down in the table.

Ans: False


Difficulty: medium

When converting a logical ERD into a physical data model, you will want to specify both primary keys and international keys.

Ans: False

Response: See Moving from Logical to Physical Data Models (both primary and foreign keys)

Difficulty: medium

When moving from logical data models to physical data models, you should update your CRUD matrix.

Ans: True

Response: See Revisiting the CRUD matrix

Difficulty: medium

CRUD stands for create, read, update and delete.

Ans: True

Response: see Revisiting the CRUD matrix

Difficulty: medium

A CRUD matrix shows exactly how data are used and created by major processes in the system.

Ans: True


Difficulty: hard

The two primary ways to optimize a relational database are (a) for storage efficiency and (b) for using the smallest amount of space.

Ans: False

Response: see Optimizing Data Storage

Difficulty: medium

The best design for accessing data faster is generally the most efficient storage as well.

Ans: False

Response: see Optimizing Data Storage

Difficulty: medium

Although TJ did a lot of work normalizing the database so that it is in third normal form (3NF), he may want to denormalize it so that access might be faster.

Ans: True

Response: see Optimizing Storage

Difficulty: medium

The most efficient tables in a relational database in terms of storage space have no redundant data and very few null values.

Ans: True

Response: see Optimizing Storage Efficiency

Difficulty: medium

Essays:

What is the purpose of data storage design?

Ans: The purpose of data storage design is to design the data storage components of the systems. From changing the logical data model into a physical data model; to deciding on a data format from files to databases; to analyzing optimization from storage optimization to access optimization.

Response: see entire chapter

Difficulty: medium

What is the difference between files and relational databases?

Ans: Files are electronic lists of data (and frequently in one of these types: master-files; look-up files, transaction files, audit files; history-files) and relational databases are tables (with primary keys and foreign keys) for easier use by developers (although can be more inefficient as far as the actual computer is concerned). Relational database are the most common type of database in use currently.

Response: see files and relational databases

Difficulty: medium

What is SQL? And what is its usage in relational databases?

Ans: SQL is the acronym for Structured Query Language. SQL is the standard language for accessing the data in the tables and it operates on complete tables (as compared to individual records in the tables). SQL is the standard for retrieving information from a relational database.


Difficulty: medium

If you were considering a media rich database (like the example of Tune Source in the textbook), what type of database organization might be best and why?

Ans: Object Databases would be a wise choice as they have both data and processes and are used to support multimedia applications or systems that involve complex data.


Difficulty: medium

What is the difference between end-user databases and enterprise databases (and give at least one end-user database product and at least one enterprise database)?

Ans: An end-user database can reside on the end-users computer and support the processes and activities of that one person or a very small workgroup. Enterprise databases reside on servers and support multiple users (or the entire business or entire enterprise). Microsoft Access might be the most common end-user database; and Oracle, DB2, Sybase, Informix, SQL Server, SAP might be considered as enterprise database systems.


Difficulty: medium

What is the difference between MIS, DSS, and EIS?

Ans: MIS is management information system; DSS is decision support sytems; EIS is executive information systems. MIS tends to be more focused toward providing reports and information for managers. DSS tends to be focused toward providing support for making decisions. EIS tends to be focused toward providing high end decision support for upper managers. MIS might be built on transaction processing and reports; DSS might need data warehousing and data marts; EIS needs more forward thinking data sources and more aggregated data for executive decision making.

Response: see Types of Applications Systems

Difficulty: medium

In chapter 2, we talked about technical feasibility (with the interpretation of can we build it). How might that apply to selecting a relational database, a object database, or a multidimensional database?

Ans: If a company / development group is very strong in relational databases, the technical feasibility is high (and the risk is low); but if that company / development group does not have skills in object databases (or multidimensional databases), the technical feasibility is low and the risk becomes higher.

Response: see Existing storage formats

Difficulty: high

What are the steps in moving from logical to physical data models?

Ans:

Step 1 change entities to tables or files

Step 2 change attributes to fields

Step 3 add primary keys

Step 4 add foreign keys

Step 5 add system-related components

Response: see Moving from logical to physical data models

Difficulty: hard

What is the CRUD matrix and why should it be updated in the data storage design activity? Give an example of who can C, R, U and D for a company and sample systems.

Ans: CRUD stands for create, read, update and delete. A CRUD matrix highlghts what activities can be accomplished on particular tables by particular users. As we move to physical data storage, we need to verify (again) who really can create data files (database tables); who can only read the tables; who can update the tables; and ultimately, who can delete the data / tables. For example, a clerk in the payroll office might be able to read payroll files and can (in some cases) update certain information in the data tables, but not create, or delete the files. A manager in the payroll office should have full access to create, read, update and delete tables. An employee in the shipping room probably has no access to any payroll information (or only limited access to his/her payroll information).


Difficulty: medium

What is the best way to optimize storage efficiency in a relational database?

Ans: The best way to optimize storage efficiency in a relational database is to normalize it remove redundancy and null values.

Response: see Optimzing storage efficiency

Difficulty: medium

What is the best ways to optimize access speed in relational databases?

Ans: The best ways to optimize access speed in relational databases is to use denormalization, indexes, and clustering.

Response: see Optimizing access speed

Difficulty: medium

Documents

Chapter 11 Test Bank