Sample Assessment-inf400s.pdf

QUESTION PAPER

ENGINEERING FACULTY Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering

COURSE:

BTECH: Engineering: Industrial

SUBJECT:

Information Systems 4: INF400S

DATE:

25th May 2015

TIME:

180 Minutes

TOTAL:

100 marks = 100%

FINAL TEST

EXAMINER:

W. K. Ng’etich

___________ Signature

16 March 2015 Date

INTERNAL MODERATOR:

B Morar

___________ Signature

20 March 2015 Date

EXTERNAL MODERATOR:

Edu Aggenbach

___________ Signature

24 March 2015 Date

INSTRUCTIONS TO CANDIDATES 1. Answer all questions. 2. Hand in question paper with your answer book(s).

Page 1 of 3

25 May 2015

FINAL (TEST3)

QUESTION 1 Answer the following: (a)

Explain what information systems are highlighting its variation from a ‘management information system’ (MIS).

(b)

Illustrate the four traditional MIS systems showing their management level structure.

(c)

(2)

In contrast to question 1 (b), list the new type of information system in existence.

(d)

(2)

(4)

Discuss the 21st century rational of IS systems in today’s organisations. (6)

(e)

Discuss the following; 1) The importance and application of Michael Porter’s Value Chain within IS to improve organisational performance.

(6)

2) Motivate how changes in the way we do business today has necessitated the need for business process reengineering (BPR) as a way forward. (10) (f)

In ten summarised points, contrast between traditional business process management and current business process redesign / reengineering. (10)

[40] QUESTION 2 Answer the following: (a)

Business process management (BPR) came to be as a result six fundamental transformational eras. Give a detailed account of these periods.

(b)

(6)

Industrial engineering (IE) has in the present day applied the capabilities of information technology (IT) by integrating business processes and workflow with IT in an effort to improve the way work is done today. Discuss the following in relations to IE and IT symbiosis.

Page 2 of 3

25 May 2015

FINAL (TEST3)

1) Discuss how Kurstedt’s management systems model has achieved this. (10) 2) Describe with examples, any four considerations that influence the use/need of BPR.

(4)

3) Discuss the five chronological steps demonstrating how BPR, and IE integration may be applied in the redesigning / designing of an organisation / business process.

(5)

[25] QUESTION 3 Answer the following: (a)

Discuss the reasons why Business process management suffered two limitations how business process redesign / reengineering resolved this. (4)

(b)

BPR in information systems, works on the premise of ‘managing the process’ within organisations as opposed to managing functions. Give six detailed justifications of the benefits of this.

(c)

(6)

BPR devised five critical generic process design factors necessary in the developmental stage of organisational process design / redesign. Give a detailed outline of these design factors.

(d)

(5)

Discuss the following statements in relations to BPR and organisational process design. 1) “Process capability is a necessity for organisations intending to adopt a BPR exercise.”

(2)

2) “According to BPR, organisations fall under 3 types of processes.” (3)

[20]

Page 3 of 3

25 May 2015

FINAL (TEST3)

QUESTION 4 Answer the following: (a)

Describe briefly the correlation between business strategy and BPR.

(b)

Discuss five comprehensive reasons why traditional financial measures are insufficient in today’s performance measurement of organisations.

(c)

(5)

(5)

“When process redesign has been undertaken in the past, it was typically done with the objective of simply "rationalizing" the process i.e. eliminating obvious bottlenecks & inefficiencies, without any particular business vision or context in mind. An example is where industrial engineering adopted Taylorism - "work simplification". The need to move from task to task rationalization to redesign of entire processes with a specific business vision and related process redesign objectives in mind was needed.” BPR is a systematic process, and follows a sequence of purposeful steps. With this in mind, briefly discuss two optional approaches one would first have to consider when identifying which process to start a redesign.

(5)

[15]

TOTAL:

[100]