Exam Mistakes

[Hackurtu]

Hey everyone,
I've been doing a few practice exams and getting pretty decent scores which I'm happy with. There are, however, some mistakes I am repeatedly making and it's killing me!
Decision-making within organisations is one of the biggest mark-slayers of mine. I cannot wrap my head around decision-making. Is there any specific method that people use to remember the different kinds of decisions and who makes them etc. etc.?
There are also a few things that I can't remember and I don't have those exams with me so I'll edit my post when I'm home, but is anybody able to help with the above situation? I find I keep making the same mistake and I can't fix it.
Thanks

[MJRomeo81]

I believe the textbook has those pyramid diagrams where it outlines the hierarchy of decision making. Here is a table I used in preparation for the exam:

[lala1911]

And in addition to what MJRomeo81 posted is that the Strategic objectives are made in order to fulfill the mission statement. Once a strategic strategy has been thought of, it is then delegated the tactical managers, who then delegate to operational managers. Think of it as a tree I guess.. with the CEO making a strategy to improve customer service, then the task will be delegated to tactical management for example setting up new hardware which could take months and then to operational management where the customer service team will undertake a few day training course with the new hardware to improve their skills.

if that makes sense

[Test12345678]

I read in the Herald Sun yesterday that a Swedish clothing brand (H&M) is opening up its first Australian store in Melbourne in the near future.

Consider the process of opening that store and you'll get an outline of the decision making process.

Remembering that:
Strategic decisions are long term (think 2-25 years).
Tactical decisions are short term (think 6-24 months).
Operational decisions are day to day (think immediate).

Senior management at H&M have decided to expand into a new country. They made a strategic decision to open in Australia.
After deciding to open in Australia, they could have opened in any part of Australia, they made a strategic decision to open in Melbourne. (Long term decisions)

The manager of the new Melbourne store will make tactical decisions, such as choosing the demographic of the staff that he hires, the layout of the store, and perhaps some decisions on promotions to increase interest in the store. (Short term decisions)

The staff at the new Melbourne store will make operational decisions, such as deciding on which customer to assist, when to offer discounts, when to fold/hang clothes. (Immediate decisions)

You might also want to link it to Sports. If you follow AFL, you'll see Strategies such as Rebuilding, Tactics such as Forward Pressure, Operational decisions such as whether you should kick or handball.

[Hackurtu]

Sorry I haven't had a chance to reply.

Your input is greatly appreciated. AN for the win! I will get this 45+ raw

Another question from a QATs practice exam regarding boundary testing conditions.

The question is:
Basil is creating a database which should reject people whose ages are less than 18 or are 55 or over. The best test data Basil could use to test the behaviour of his database are:
A - 17,18,19,54,55
B - 18,55
C - 18,19,55,56
D - 17,18,19,54,55,56

B and C can be immediately eliminated but then the wording of the question threw me, as it states less than 18 or are 55 or over which leads me to believe that 55 is one of the boundary conditions where 17,18,19 are adequate for testing the lower boundary but as far as I can see, because the 55 is included in the over category, it is not necessary to test above that which would make D wrong.

Would D be correct or would A be sufficient for testing all conditions of the database? I believe A would suffice but it doesn't seem to be so as evident in the answers.

I don't know if it makes sense but any input would be appreciated.

[Lasercookie]

because the 55 is included in the over category, it is not necessary to test above that which would make D wrong.

I disagree, you should be testing below, at and above each of your boundaries. These correspond to checking if your database is interpreting less than, equal to and greater than correctly. It could very well be possible that something has been messed up and you get some odd behaviour with values greater than your boundary. So we can rule out A because it doesn't test for values greater than 55. Hence the answer is D.

It is true that D is testing more values than it needs to, if you had 17,18,19,55,56 then that's probably a set of test values that's sufficient. You account for less than 18, equal to 18, greater than 18 and less than 55 (between the two boundaries in this case), equal to 55 and greater than 55 with that set.

[lala1911]

B&C are obviously wrong.
A doesnt test above the boundaries.
My answer would be D. It tests: before the boundaries, on the 18, between boundaries twice, on the 55, and after the boundaries
The only issue is that it tests in between the boundaries twice.. but I don't think it matters.

[EspoirTron]

I thought I would just input on what Lasercookie and Lala have already mentioned. I would also agree that Option D is the most suitable response, A is tempting; however, during the testing phase you should supply relevant test data that is both within the scope (not literal definition scope, just used that word for convenience) and outside its range, ideally you would want something below 18, which Option A and D offer, within the age limit, which again, Option A and D offer, and lastly something beyond the range with only Option D offers. Thus, Option D is the most appropriate choice.

If this was a short-answer question, I would also go on to say how text data may be entered to see how the database responds, perhaps this could also test functionality as the input should not be text, we should get an error upon entering text.

[Test12345678]

Hackurtu,

there was a similar question on the 2012 VCAA exam (Section A, Question 12)

A text box on a data entry form has this validation rule applied to it: 2999 < Postcode < 4000.
The most suitable data to test the rule is
A. 3336, 3337, 3999
B. 2050, 3050, 4050
C. 2999, 4000, 4001
D. 3000, 3999, 4050

In this case, the correct answer was B.

2050 and 4050 are outside either boundary and are expected to be rejected, 3050 is inside the boundaries and is expected to be accepted.

C was the most commonly incorrect answer.

2999, 4000 and 4001 are outside either boundary and are expected to be rejected. But there are no values inside the boundary, hence, the test data would not prove that a valid post code would actually be accepted.

Whilst test data of 2999, 3000, 3999, 4000 would be the best, it was not an option. In these cases it's important to be able to identify the best of the options that are offered.

Using this question as a guide, I think it's clear that option A in your original question would be incorrect as it doesn't include a number greater than 55.

[lala1911]

That's true Test, you just need to ensure that all boundaries are tested. In C, not only is there no value that measures before or inside.

[kianabelikova]

The answer could be D but remember that the solution has to be tested in the most efficient way possible: with the least amount of test data

 As it states that any number 55 or over should be rejected, it means that 55 would be rejected as well. If 5 values can test the boundaries as efficiently as 6, then isn't that the better answer?

[lala1911]

The answer could be D but remember that the solution has to be tested in the most efficient way possible: with the least amount of test data

 As it states that any number 55 or over should be rejected, it means that 55 would be rejected as well. If 5 values can test the boundaries as efficiently as 6, then isn't that the better answer?

If for example you have a formula on Excel =IF(A1>=55,"Yes","No"), you'd want to test 55 and 56 where 55 would say Yes and 56 would say Yes too.