BXL Scenarios

Post date: Jul 9, 2020 2:34:18 PM

Add-in for Exploring Multiple Assumptions

Models have inputs known as assumptions.Each assumption can have multiple values.

Illustration:

Imagine a model showing how unit price impacts profit, Unit price is an assumption that can have many values.

We call a unique set of assumption/value pairs a scenario.

Illustration:

Unit Price (assumption) at $5:00 (value) is one scenario. Unit Price at $5.50 is another.

Most models present results for one scenario. We often find it necessary to compare scenarios to see which combination of assumption/value pairs provides the best outcome (Scenario Analysis), or which assumptions impact our model most (Sensitivity Analysis), or explore which scenarios have the highest probability (Monte Carlo Analysis). With (usually) a lot of effort we can modify our models to display multiple scenarios at once. This makes our models larger, more complex, more prone to failure, and slower. An alternative is to keep our models simple and layer one of Microsoft's tools designed to compare impacts of multiple assumptions: Data Tables and Scenario Manager. They both work great within certain limitations but neither allow sorting or filtering results which I find very useful. So I created BXL Scenarios. Here is how the three tools compare:

* There are methods to workaround this limitation

BXL Scenarios strength is its ability to handle several assumptions and outputs in one table we can sort and filter for further insights. It is available for $19 through Eloquens.