Working with Scenario Analysis and Goal Seeking

About Scenario Analysis and Goal Seeking
Apply Scenario Analysis and Goal Seeking to a Forecast
Remove Scenario Analysis and Goal Seeking from Your Forecast

About Scenario Analysis and Goal Seeking

Scenario analysis enables you to forecast hypothetical scenarios by specifying the future values for one or more underlying factors that contribute to the forecast.
For example, if you forecast the profit of a company, and material cost is an underlying factor, then you might use scenario analysis to determine how the forecasted profit would change if the material cost increased by 10%.
In addition to scenario analysis, you can perform goal seeking. Goal seeking enables you to specify a target value for your forecast measure, and then determine the values of your underlying factors that would be required to achieve the target value.
For example, if you forecast the profit of a company, and material cost is an underlying factor, then you might use goal seeking to determine what value for material cost would be required to achieve a 10% increase in profit.
Scenario analysis and goal seeking can be used together in the same forecast.

Apply Scenario Analysis and Goal Seeking to a Forecast

To apply scenario analysis and goal seeking:
  1. On the Roles tab, select Scenario Analysis. The Scenario Analysis window appears.
    Note: The Scenario Analysis option is available only if one or more underlying factors contribute to the forecast.
  2. For the forecast measure and for each of the measures that are assigned to the forecast as underlying factors, a line displays the values of the measure, and a series of points enables you to set the future values for the measure.
    Note: You can also display the forecast values as a table. Click the Table icon to display the table mode.
    To perform scenario analysis, set the future values for the underlying factors.
    To perform goal seeking, set the target future values for the forecast measure.
    You can set the values by using any of the following methods:
    • drag each data point upward or downward on the line chart. To select the accuracy of the points, click the measure heading on the plot axis, and select Snap Interval.
    • enter the value for each data point. Right-click on a data point, and select Set Point Value.
    • set all of the values for the measure. Click the measure heading on the plot axis, and select Set Series Values. The Change Future Values window enables you to set all of the values to a specific value or to adjust the future values relative to the forecasted values of the measure.
    Note: If you change future values for either scenario analysis or goal seeking, you must apply your changes before you can change future values for a different analysis type.
    To reset any data point to its original value, right-click on the data point, and then select Reset Point.
    To reset all of the data points for a measure, click the measure heading on the plot axis, and then select Reset Entire Series.
  3. If you perform goal seeking and there are multiple underlying factors, then choose which of the underlying factors are optimized to achieve the target value.
  4. (Optional) If you perform goal seeking, you can set bounds for each underlying factor to limit the minimum and maximum values that are possible.
    To set the minimum value for an underlying factor, click the measure heading, and then select Boundsthen selectAdd Lower Bound.
    To set the maximum value for an underlying factor, click the measure heading and then select Boundsthen selectAdd Upper Bound.
  5. When you are finished setting the future values for the scenario, click Apply to apply the scenario to the forecast.
    The forecast is updated to show the results of the scenario. The original forecast is displayed as an additional line that is labeled (Baseline).

Remove Scenario Analysis and Goal Seeking from Your Forecast

To remove the scenario analysis and goal seeking from a forecast, follow these steps:
  1. On the Roles tab, select Scenario Analysis. The Scenario Analysis window appears.
  2. For each measure, click the measure heading, and then select Reset Entire Series.
  3. Click Apply to apply your changes.
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