Payroll System: Exam Questions and Answers

Citing:

 

Use your own words in the take-home examination portion – however any copied (quoted) material should be placed in quotes and clearly referenced. Ideas from others should be referenced. Note that any material in quotes or ideas from others DO NOT EARN GRADES since you are being asked to provide your own examples and ideas in this take-home assignment.

 

Put your references (also called citations), if any, at the end of your submission after your answers to all of the questions.

When answering please:

link to the specified case using terms specific to the business and functional area under discussion, clearly illustrate the concept or theory being addressed or examined using an example and differentiate from other theories, by being specific enough that your example could not readily apply to other concepts or theories, i.e. provide enough information to illustrate WHY the example is relevant to the concept or theory being discussed.

 

1. (i) Provide three examples of payroll master data attributes, with the first listed and labelled as the primary key.

(ii) Explain why the attributes you have listed in Part A (i) are master data.

2. Provide examples of a payroll input and processing application control that could have prevented payroll system errors.

Input control   

Processing control

 

3. Provide an example of how each of the following characteristics of cloud computing could have been beneficial to Public Service and Procurement Canada’s (PSPC’s) use of the Phoenix payroll system.

Cloud computing provides on-demand self-service

Cloud computing uses broad network access

 

4. Provide one example of how each of the following network processes could be used by employees while processing payroll with the Phoenix system:

Ethernet protocol

Client-server computing

5. Provide two examples of how the HR departments of the government of Canada could have used social networking websites.

Example 1

Example 2

7. Describe (i) an electronic payment method the government of Canada could have used to pay its employees and (ii) what might have gone wrong in the payroll system to prevent the employee from being paid.

• Electronic payment method
• What could have gone wrong

8. Provide an example of how each of the following technologies could have been implemented at the new pay centre in Miramichi:

Short-range wireless network: ultra-wideband (UWB)

Bluetooth

9. PSPC will be installing many printers, scanners and copiers at its Miramichi location. Shift your focus to a printer manufacturing company that needs to produce high-quality, high-speed laser printers for shipment to Miramichi and other locations in North America. Examples of such companies are HP and Ricoh.

For each of the following five basic components of SCM (supply chain management), provide an example of how information systems could be used by a printer manufacturer to:

Plan

Source

Make

Deliver

Return

10. Assume that data from both the old payroll systems and the new Phoenix system are available to business analytics systems. Provide an example of how each of the following business analytics methods could have been used by PSPC in either payroll or human resources management.

Online analytical processing (OLAP), also known as multi-dimensional analysis

Data mining: identifying previously unknown patterns

Data mining: predicting trends and behaviors

11. Provide an example of how PSPC could have used each of the following two cost-benefit analysis methods while deciding whether or not to acquire the Phoenix payroll system:

Net Present Value (NPV) method

Break-even analysis

12. PSPC chose as its strategy for acquiring the Phoenix system to customize the Phoenix prewritten application. Relate two disadvantages of the customization approach to the negative consequences that arose after the implementation.

Example 1

Example 2

13. Provide an example of how PSPC could have used each of the following phases of the systems development life cycle approach to help prevent the Phoenix payroll problems:

Systems design

Testing

Implementation (or deployment)

Maintenance