Info Systems Notes for the Final - Info Systems Notes for...

Info Systems Notes for the Final (power point from teacher with notes from student expanding
on book)
Case 10 (Lab)
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Case 13 (Lab)
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Case 16 (Lab)
Midterm Review Slides and Examples Questions
*Chapter 6
 A decision is simply a choice among alternatives.
 Examples:
 deciding on a college major
 deciding on a restaurant for dinner
 deciding on a new product to launch
 Good decision making requires good information and the skills and tools to appropriately analyze the
relevant information
 Decision making can be seen as choosing alternative inputs (decision variables) based on target
outputs with varying levels of information about the process that generates outputs from inputs
 Example:
 You are a CEO at a electronics company and your target output is to increase revenues
 You are considering to introduce a new product (a smartwatch) to achieve the target output
(higher revenue). Hence, your input is whether or not to introduce a smartwatch.
 You need to gather information on how the values of input (smartwatch/no smartwatch) will
effect the output (revenue)
 While deciding on a College Major the alternatives for decision making are:
A. Various costs
B. Different majors
C. Starting salaries
D. Long-term prospects
 Structured or Programmed Decisions: Decisions that are routine and repetitive, and often have a well-
defined procedure
 Example: Manager of a fast food restaurant needs to decide on the number of hamburger buns
to buy for tomorrow
 Target Output: Very low probability (<5%) that the restaurant will run out of hamburger
buns tomorrow
 Input: Potential number of hamburger buns (decision variable)
 Process Information:
 Effect of the day of the week and month on sales
 Effect of local events on sales
 Effect of weather on sales
 Constraints on the number of hamburger buns
 Manager could program a spreadsheet that would output the probability of a stockout
given a certain number of hamburger buns for each day
Info Systems Notes for the Final (power point from teacher with notes from student and expansion on book)
* = Not on the Mid Term

 Unstructured or Non-programmed Decisions: Decisions that are novel and do not have a preexisting
procedure
 Example:
 Decision to introduce a new smartwatch by an electronics company
 Semi-structured Decisions: Decisions that have some elements that are structured and other elements
that are unstructured
 Example:
 Planning annual compensation for employees in a large company
 Some structured decisions can be automated leading to what is called automated decisions making .