This document is a guideline for studying that students can use to focus their efforts.

This
document is not a contract that eliminates any other content that may be on the exam. Higher
grades are given for more specific and detailed responses. Try to always provide context for your
answers by including a scenario that explains the question response (for example ### company
might use ### technology, management structure and processes to analyze and solve ###
problem, providing the likely results of ####).
T-SQL (this section is complete)
1. Write a SQL Group By query that includes one inner join, one sub-query and uses two filters
in the WHERE clause. Explain what each line of code is doing.
2. Compare and contrast a GROUP BY query and a PIVOT() query.
3. What is the usefulness of SQL views? What advantages do they offer? How are they used in a
BI setting?
4. What advantages do stored procedures have over views?
5. What are SQL window functions? What are the key words that make them work? What
advantages can be derived from their usage?
6. What are SQL table variables? What are the key words that make them work? What
advantages can be derived from their usage?
7. What are sub-queries? Why are they used? How have they been used in the class
readings? Describe the way that SQL Sub queries are used in conjunction with Table
variables.
Conceptual
1. Compare and contrast transaction processing systems and data warehouses (or data marts) what
are
each
type
of
system
optimized
to
perform?
Similarly compare and contrast transaction processing and analytical processing.
2. On page 10 describe the architecture of BI using an example,perhaps from one of the cases in
the textbook, a recent company you have researched or worked for, or an intended work
setting.
3. Be prepared to answer questions from section 1.7 - what are the different level of analytics.
4. Provide your interpretation of Figure 1.5, include the technologies that we have discussed and
used to date (i.e., Excel, Tableau, etc.)
5. Describe the business needs that drive the creation of data warehouses. What advantages to
an organization that uses ETL processing and loading up data warehouses.
What are the major components of a data warehousing system? Include figure 2.3
6. Provide your review of figure 2.9 using a likely company setting.
7. Describe what business reports are and what a business reporting systems is (use examples)
8. Starting on page 116 discuss what visual analytics is, and how visual analytics merges with
storytelling.
What is story telling in the context of business meetings and how can visual analytics help
story telling?
9. What are the different types of dashboards and their usage in business operations?
10. Discuss the figure 3.10 closed loop BPM cycle.
11. Provide your definition of data mining and one example of a business problem that can be
analyzed with data mining.