UNIVERSITY EXAMINATIONS: 2021/2022
EXAMINATION FOR THE DEGREE OF BACHELOR OF BUSINESS
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
EXAMINATION FOR THE DEGREE OF BACHELOR OF APPLIED
COMPUTING
BBIT 209: DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEMS
BAC 3103: DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEMS
FULL TIME/PART TIME/DISTANCE LEARNING
DATE: DECEMBER, 2021 TIME: 2 HOURS
INSTRUCTIONS: ANSWER QUESTION ONE AND ANY TWO QUESTIONS
QUESTION ONE [20 Marks]
a) Kai company operates a rock quarry that provides local stone for landscaping. They currently
have an offer for kshs50,000 to sell the quarry. They are hesitant to sell because they believe
there will be an increase in demand in the next 2 years that would improve their financial
situation. If they decide to keep the quarry, the current buyer would be willing to pay
kshs30,000 in 2 years, regardless of the situation. The management think there is a 60% chance
of an increase, at which point they would operate at a profit of kshs75,000 or sell the quarry to
a new buyer for kshs60,000. If demand does not increase, they would operate at a profit of only
kshs10,000.
Use a decision tree to determine what they should do. (10 Marks)
b) Using the chart above ( 5 Marks)
i. Predict the population and growth rate between 2011 and 2020
ii. Create a line graph for the data (1956-2020)
c) The stock value in 2010 is 10, and change rate from 2010 to 2020 is x. If we want to set the
value in 2020 to 15, calculate the change rate from 2010 to 2020 x? ( 5 Marks)
QUESTION TWO [15 Marks]
a) “Proper application of decision making tools increase productivity, efficiency and
effectiveness leading to competitive advantage. “ Justify (5 Marks)
b) Astrofuels produce two grades of petroleum from crude oil. Unleaded plus requires 1 hours
of processing time, while Premium Ultra requires 2 hours of processing time. Astrofuel has
two processing machines. Astrofuel operate a 5 day working week, and each working day is 8
hours long. The company has six independent processing machines. Each machine requires 3
hours of cleaning per day in order to maintain the purity of the product. 1 hour of processing
time costs €1. In addition additives and extra refinement costs an additional €1 for Premium
Ultra, and €2 for Unleaded plus. Astrofuels has a standing order of 125 tons per month of
Premium Ultra from a major fuel distributor, Taxol. In order to meet revenue targets,
management has demanded that at least 350 tons of fuels be processed this month.
Your objective as production manager is to minimize production cost for the next month.
Describe how this can be achieved in which this is possible using the data provided above.(
For the purpose of calculation, you may assume a month consists of 4 weeks. )
(10 Marks)
QUESTION THREE [15 Marks]
A national chain of food retail outlets wants to improve its MIS capabilities. Each retail outlet
collects data about the individual sales of products into a separate database which is
implemented using local software and IT platforms. The Managing Director (MD) wants to
access information so that he can monitor company progress towards its sales Key Performance
Indicators (KPIs). He also wants his retail outlet managers (many of whom are inexperienced
computer users) to directly receive:
• a monthly sales report by product type for their retail outlet.
• a report comparing the overall monthly sales performance of individual
outlets.
• ad-hoc access to sales data for flexible reporting.
Describe and justify a Business Intelligence (BI) system that could be employed to support
the requirements defined by the MD. Make sure that your answer includes a:
• description of how each user role would interact with the BI system in order to
request and receive information,
• discussion of the potential data sources for the BI system and any accompanying
Extract-Transform-Load (ETL) requirements, and
• discussion of how the BI system might be developed using a phased approach.
( 15 Marks)
QUESTION FOUR [15 Marks]
a) A Group Decision Support System (GDSS) is more likely to support the Intelligence
phase of Simon (1960)’s decision making model, whereas a rule-based Expert System
(ES) is more likely to support the Design and Choice phases. Discuss the extent to
which you agree with this statement. Include a definition of both GDSS and rulebased ES within your answer. (8 Marks)
b) How can sensitivity analysis help in the choice phase (3 Marks)
c) Discuss how can a computer help overcome the cognitive limits of human
(4 Marks)
