Exam : IBM COG-480
Title : IBM Cognos 8 Planning Professional


1. Which of the following is a best practice when designing an Analyst model for ease of maintenance?
A. Use local allocations in D-Links when D-List items do not match.
B. Ensure the D-List items are all less than 30 characters in length.
C. Set up import links and use in the automation of the update of D-Lists.
D. Design many smaller D-Cubes instead of few large ones.
Answer: C

2. How could the following D-Cube be improved so that it is easier for end users to understand what they need to input?
A. Remove the calculation D-List from the D-Cube.
B. Rename D-List items to use more familiar wording.
C. Rename the calculation D-List to reflect the calculations being performed.
D. Replace the Built in Function on the calculation D-List with simple calculations.
Answer: B

3. When designing a model, which groups of people should be given greatest consideration?
A. Those entering or reviewing data.
B. Those administering the model.
C. Those developing and supporting the model.
D. Those importing the data from external sources.
Answer: A

4. What issue is Iterative Development specifically designed to address?
A. No developed solution will satisfy all users equally.
B. Users often feel that IT does not understand the business.
C. The very act of developing a system or solution could change the business requirements.
D. Users understand their business processes but they do not usually understand application development.
Answer: C

5. When developing a Cognos Planning system, when is prototyping most useful?
A. When the user requirements are unclear.
B. When the development team is very large.
C. When the client can afford the extra time and cost required.
D. When the solution is being implemented for a department other than Finance.
Answer: A

6. What is a major flaw of the Waterfall approach to system development?
A. There is no Analyze phase; the steps go from Plan directly to Design.
B. Steps are followed sequentially without returning to previous steps.
C. Technical constraints tend to overrule user requirements.
D. This approach can only be implemented using large teams.
Answer: B

7. Which of the following is a best practice when designing to limit complexity in an Analyst model?
A. Design different D-Cubes for different purposes.
B. Use only simple calculations in the D-Lists.
C. Have one or two very large D-Cubes in the model.
D. Use D-Cubes with only short D-Lists.
Answer: A

8. A company wants to use Contributor to plan several business processes. Salary planning is done every six months, revenue and expense planning is done on a rolling monthly basis, and capital expenditure is done annually.
To aid the planning process, which suggestion is considered best practice for this company?
A. One application to cover all of the business processes with D-Links to transfer data between D-Cubes.
B. An application for each business process with flat files to transfer data between them.
C. An application for each business process with system links and D-Links to transfer data between them.
D. An application for each business process with system links and administration links to transfer data between them.
Answer: D