1. Business Intelligence
Revision note

3. 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

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

5. 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)

6. 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 ??

7. 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

8. 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.

9. 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

10. 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

11. Keywords you must be comfortable explaining
Topic 3 – Data Warehouse
Differences between data warehouse and database – characteristics
Different architecture
Different development approach

12. 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

13. 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

14. 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

15. Question 1
Ubiquity in computing is said to offer capabilities to facilitate decision support . Explain ubiquity with example.

16. Question 2
Explain structured decision making with example

17. Question 3
Explain unstructured decision making with example

18. Question 4
Explain Business Intelligence

19. Question 5
Explain strategy gap with example

20. Question 6
Explain how Business Intelligence can help closing the Strategy gap

21. Question 7
Identify 4 major components of Business Intelligence

22. Question 8
Identify and briefly describe the 3 environments in BI

23. Question 9 Enterprises can maximize their BI investments by achieving
operational excellence, customer intimacy and product
leadership.
Explain operational excellence

24. Question 10 Enterprises can maximize their BI investments by achieving
operational excellence, customer intimacy and product
leadership.
Explain customer intimacy

25. Question 11 Enterprises can maximize their BI investments by achieving
operational excellence, customer intimacy and product
leadership.
Explain product leadership

26. Question 12
Explain OLTP

27. Question 13
Explain OLAP

28. Question 14
Explain competitive intelligence

29. Question 15
Identify and explain one type of BI user

30. Question 16
Identify and explain one type of BI user

31. Question 17
Identify and explain one type of BI user

32. Question 18
Understanding and dealing with the user community is said to be one of the BI implementation issues. Explain this notion.

33. Question 19
Explain data warehouse. How does it differ from operational database?

34. Question 20-23
Explain one out of four 4 main characteristics of data warehousing

35. Question 24
Explain the data warehousing process

36. Question 25-27
Illustrate one of the data warehouse architectures

37. 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

38. Question 32-33
Describe the two approaches in data warehouse development

39. Question 34
Decsribe data mining and explain its importance to organizational decision making

40. Question 35
Describe the 4 common data mining algorithms and their examples of use in business