Sensitivity Analysis and Scenario Planning

This course will give you insights into how sensitivity analysis and scenario planning can improve your company's decisions. You'll also discover tools to obtain and communicate insights from this analysis.

Sensitivity analysis involves varying model inputs to assess their impact on the outputs. This helps identify the model inputs that have the greatest impact on outputs, such as profit, improving decision efficiency and effectiveness. It also provides a clearer picture of the company's full range of potential outcomes.

Scenario planning involves modifying multiple assumptions from the base case or current conditions to explore different projections. It allows outcomes to reflect the correlation between multiple assumptions, which may amplify their impact exponentially compared to changing a single assumption. Scenarios can identify opportunities the company should prepare for or risks it needs to mitigate.

You'll learn tools like bookending and tornado diagrams to develop and present sensitivity analyses. Many people anticipate an overly narrow range of potential outcomes, leaving them unaware of many positive and negative possibilities. You'll discover techniques to enhance the accuracy of estimates for the most likely outcome and the full range of potential outcomes.