COB 204 EXAM 2 QUESTIONS WELL ANSWERED LATEST UPDATE 2026
Business Intelligence (BI) - Answers Processes and technologies that help to turn raw data into useful
insights.
BI Primary Activities - Answers 1. Acquire data
2. Perform Analysis
3. Publish Results
BI Purposes - Answers identify trends, support decision making, improve operational efficiency,
predict outcomes, monitor performance
BI vs. BA - Answers BI is focused on the past/present and analyzing historical data, BA is focused on
using statistical techniques to identify why things happened and predict what will happen
Data Warehouse - Answers Main purpose: centralize and store large amounts of clean, structured
data from different sources, used for historical analysis, digestible by humans
Data Warehouse Components - Answers 1. Data Sources - Databases, ERPs, CRMs - where the data
comes from
2. ETL/Data Integration Tools - extracts and cleans data, then loads it into the Warehouse
3. Data Storage - Central Database - Repository where data is stored, usually consists of a data
warehouse, data lake for raw data, and data marts for specific departments
4. Metadata - Acts as a guide for the data, defining structure, lineage, and technical details for the
data
5. Presentation tools - tools that present data for visualization, analysis, etc.
Data Mart - Answers Stores structured data for use by specific departments
Data Lake - Answers Stores huge amounts of unstructured data for . cost effective analysis by storing
data in its native format. Not for use by humans.
Potential problems when analyzing data - Answers Inaccurate, incomplete, inconsistent, or
duplicated data can all lead to inaccurate reports or struggle analyzing
3 types of BI reporting - Answers 1. Reporting - Creating information about past performance
2. Data Mining - the process of using statistical techniques, machine learning, and algorithms to
discover previously unknown patterns and relationships in large datasets.
3. Data Discovery - Finding patterns and relationships
Types of BI publishing - Answers Push/Pull - Push is sending results out on a fixed schedule whereas
pull is requesting data that is updated at the time of request
Static vs. Dynamic - Static is fixed snapshots from specific points whereas dynamic is an interactive
dashboard of live information
5 reporting operations - Answers 1. Sorting - reorganizing data according to values
2. Grouping - essentially defining rows based on shared values
3. Filtering - removes unwanted data
4. Calculating - applies formulas such as sums, averages, or percentages to generate new insights
5. Formatting - Visualizing data or just changing how it appears visually so its easier to digest
How does data mining differ from reporting tools? - Answers Data mining differs from reporting
applications because reporting tools summarize known information, while data mining discovers new
relationships and predictions that were not previously identified.
Supervised vs Unsupervised data mining - Answers Supervised - uses predefined, labeled training
data to predict known relationships in specific cases (when will a customer most likely pay loan)
Unsupervised - Uses raw data to discover new patterns and trends that had previously been
undiscovered
Benefits of data discovery and visualization - Answers Discovery - allows organizations to explore
large datasets quickly to identify trends, anomalies, and relationships for decision making
Visualization - Reformats complex data so that organizations can understand it in a graphical format
Three V's of Big Data - Answers 1. Volume - Massive amounts of data
2. Velocity - how fast data can be accessed
3. Variety - many different formats data comes in
Three primary alternatives for publishing data - Answers BI Platforms - Dashboards and analytic tools
for data analysis
Knowledge Management Systems (KMS) - store and distribute expertise and experience (Canvas -
centralizes, stores, and distributes learning materials)
Business Intelligence (BI) - Answers Processes and technologies that help to turn raw data into useful
insights.
BI Primary Activities - Answers 1. Acquire data
2. Perform Analysis
3. Publish Results
BI Purposes - Answers identify trends, support decision making, improve operational efficiency,
predict outcomes, monitor performance
BI vs. BA - Answers BI is focused on the past/present and analyzing historical data, BA is focused on
using statistical techniques to identify why things happened and predict what will happen
Data Warehouse - Answers Main purpose: centralize and store large amounts of clean, structured
data from different sources, used for historical analysis, digestible by humans
Data Warehouse Components - Answers 1. Data Sources - Databases, ERPs, CRMs - where the data
comes from
2. ETL/Data Integration Tools - extracts and cleans data, then loads it into the Warehouse
3. Data Storage - Central Database - Repository where data is stored, usually consists of a data
warehouse, data lake for raw data, and data marts for specific departments
4. Metadata - Acts as a guide for the data, defining structure, lineage, and technical details for the
data
5. Presentation tools - tools that present data for visualization, analysis, etc.
Data Mart - Answers Stores structured data for use by specific departments
Data Lake - Answers Stores huge amounts of unstructured data for . cost effective analysis by storing
data in its native format. Not for use by humans.
Potential problems when analyzing data - Answers Inaccurate, incomplete, inconsistent, or
duplicated data can all lead to inaccurate reports or struggle analyzing
3 types of BI reporting - Answers 1. Reporting - Creating information about past performance
2. Data Mining - the process of using statistical techniques, machine learning, and algorithms to
discover previously unknown patterns and relationships in large datasets.
3. Data Discovery - Finding patterns and relationships
Types of BI publishing - Answers Push/Pull - Push is sending results out on a fixed schedule whereas
pull is requesting data that is updated at the time of request
Static vs. Dynamic - Static is fixed snapshots from specific points whereas dynamic is an interactive
dashboard of live information
5 reporting operations - Answers 1. Sorting - reorganizing data according to values
2. Grouping - essentially defining rows based on shared values
3. Filtering - removes unwanted data
4. Calculating - applies formulas such as sums, averages, or percentages to generate new insights
5. Formatting - Visualizing data or just changing how it appears visually so its easier to digest
How does data mining differ from reporting tools? - Answers Data mining differs from reporting
applications because reporting tools summarize known information, while data mining discovers new
relationships and predictions that were not previously identified.
Supervised vs Unsupervised data mining - Answers Supervised - uses predefined, labeled training
data to predict known relationships in specific cases (when will a customer most likely pay loan)
Unsupervised - Uses raw data to discover new patterns and trends that had previously been
undiscovered
Benefits of data discovery and visualization - Answers Discovery - allows organizations to explore
large datasets quickly to identify trends, anomalies, and relationships for decision making
Visualization - Reformats complex data so that organizations can understand it in a graphical format
Three V's of Big Data - Answers 1. Volume - Massive amounts of data
2. Velocity - how fast data can be accessed
3. Variety - many different formats data comes in
Three primary alternatives for publishing data - Answers BI Platforms - Dashboards and analytic tools
for data analysis
Knowledge Management Systems (KMS) - store and distribute expertise and experience (Canvas -
centralizes, stores, and distributes learning materials)
