Page 571 - Using MIS

Glossary 539

groups of similar customers in data about customer orders Configuration control A set of management policies, prac-
and customer demographics. 360 tices, and tools that developers use to maintain control over
COBIT (Control Objectives for Information and related the project’s resources. 483
Technology) A set of standard practices, created by the Connection data In social media systems, data about
Information Systems Audit and Control Association, that relationships. 298
are used in the assessment stage of the BPM cycle to de- Content data In social media systems, data and re-
termine how well an information system complies with an sponses to data that are contributed by users and SM
organization’s strategy. 463 sponsors. 298
Collaboration information system An information sys- Content delivery network (CDN) An information system
tem that supports collaboration. See also collaboration that serves content to Web pages over the Internet. To
system. 46 reduce wait time, data is typically stored and served from
Collaboration system An information system that sup- many geographic locations. 228
ports collaboration. See also collaboration information Content management systems (CMS) Information systems
system 46 that support the management and delivery of documenta-
Collaboration The activity of two or more people working tion including reports, Web pages, and other expressions of
together to achieve a common goal via a process of feed- employee knowledge. 368
back and iteration. One of four key skills for nonroutine Control flow A BPMN symbol that documents the flow of
cognitive thinking. 8, 38 activity in a business process. 461
Columns Also called fields, or groups of bytes. A data- Conversion rate Measures the frequency with which some-
base table has multiple columns that are used to repre- one who clicks on an ad makes a purchase, “likes” a site, or
sent the attributes of an entity. Examples are PartNumber, takes some other action desired by the advertiser. 312
EmployeeName, and SalesDate. 164
Cookie A small file that is stored on the user’s computer by a
Commerce server An application program that runs on browser. Cookies can be used for authentication, for storing
a server tier computer. A typical commerce server ob- shopping cart contents and user preferences, and for other
tains product data from a database, manages items in legitimate purposes. Cookies can also be used to implement
users’ shopping carts, and coordinates the checkout spyware. 398
process. 220
Cooperation The process by which a group of people having
Communication channels Means of delivering messages. 318 the same skills work in parallel to shorten the time required
Communities of practice Groups of people related by a to accomplish a job (e.g., four painters each painting one
common interest. 294 wall of a room). 37
Communities See communities of practice. 294 Cost The cost of a business process is equal to the cost of the
Competitive analysis Process of identifying the strength and inputs plus the cost of activities. 90
weaknesses in competitors’ use of social media. 315 Cost feasibility An assessment of the cost of an infor-
Competitive strategy The strategy an organization chooses mation system development project that compares es-
as the way it will succeed in its industry. According to Porter, timated costs to the available budget. Can also refer
there are four fundamental competitive strategies: cost to development plus operational costs versus value
leadership across an industry or within a particular indus- delivered. 469
try segment and product or service differentiation across an Critical path analysis The process by which project man-
industry or within a particular industry segment. 85 agers compress a schedule by moving resources, typi-
Computer hardware Electronic components and related cally people, from noncritical path tasks to critical path
gadgetry that input, process, output, store, and communi- tasks. 480
cate data according to the instructions encoded in com- Critical path The sequence of activities that determine the
puter programs or software. One of the five fundamental earliest date by which the project can be completed. 480
components of an information system. 11, 116 Cross-selling The sale of related products to customers
Computer-based information system An information sys- based on salesperson knowledge, market-basket analysis,
tem that includes a computer. 11 or both. 361
Confidence In market-basket terminology, the probability Crow’s feet Lines on an entity-relationship diagram that in-
estimate that two items will be purchased together. 362 dicate a 1:N relationship between two entities. 181