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Modeling tips & tricks

Learn from our team of modeling experts and the decision analysis community on best practices for model building. Here you will find information about Analytica, as well as general tips and tricks. Topics include how to go about structuring a complex problem, how to analyze models using sensitivity and scenario analysis, and tips on selecting graphs and maps to provide clearer insights. Overall we want to guide you and your organization to be better decision makers, no matter what industry or field you work in.

For more a more comprehensive list of tutorials, user guides, videos, example models, and libraries, check out our Analytica Docs website.

Overcoming data paralysis with decision support

Paralysis by data analysis is a common ailment in organizations, and it’s probably going to get worse. The more data available, the greater the temptation to examine, twist and tweak.

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Monte carlo simulation

Monte Carlo simulation tips & tricks

Get expert advice and practical guidance in using Monte Carlo simulation to improve modeling accuracy and efficiency.

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The basics of risk analysis in the enterprise

Risky business – bad news? Not necessarily. While the word risk has a negative connotation for some, it’s a source of business opportunity for others. Good risk analysis ...

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Data modeling 101

Think data modeling is just for the geeks? Think again! Even if deep down in the IT layers data models can make Egyptian hieroglyphs look like a Dr. Seuss book by comparison ...

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A quote by Donald Rumsfeld. There are known knowns. These things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. This is to say, there are things that we know we don’t know. But there are also unknown unkowns. These are the things we don’t know we don’t know.

Finding out what you don’t know with sensitivity analysis

Remember Donald Rumsfeld’s speech from 2007 on the things we know and the things we don’t? How about some uncertainty or importance analysis to go with that?

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Deterministic or Stochastic – Which business modeling should you present?

Aaah… if only someone had written a program to automatically choose the type of modeling for any given business situation. Perhaps somebody has and it is buried somewhere ...

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5 mistakes to avoid if you want to make good quantitative risk assessments

Numbers don’t lie. It’s the people using them that are responsible for falsehoods, distortions, or simply mistakes! Yet numbers have several attractions: you can compare them ...

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Business modeling needs more than spreadsheet dinosaurs

Huge body, tiny brain. Those were prominent characteristics of dinosaurs and part of their DNA. Those that were unable to cope with changes died out, although they had a good run ...

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					The free edition of Analytica includes these key Analytica features:				
    
				
    
				
    
				
    
							
      
							
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										intuitive visual modeling with influence diagrams
									
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										the convenience and power of  Intelligent Arrays
									
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										managing risk and uncertainty with fast Monte Carlo
									
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										sharing models on the web with the Analytica Cloud Platform (ACP)
									
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									Free Analytica has no time limit. The only constraint is it won’t let you create more than 100 variables or other objects. But your model can be quite substantial since each variable can be a multidimensional array. It also lets you explore, change inputs, and run existing models of any size (excluding features unique to the Enterprise or Optimizer editions).								
    
				
    
				
    
				
    
							
      
							
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										Analytica runs on any Windows computer, or on a Macintosh using Parallels or VMWare. ACP runs via any web browser.
									
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