Conceiving hybrid what-if scenarios based on usage preferences

Abstract

Nowadays, enterprise managers involved with decision-making processes struggle with numerous problems related to market position or business reputation of their companies. Owning the right and high quality set of information is a crucial factor for developing business activities and gaining competitive advantages on business arenas. However, today retrieving information is not enough anymore. The possibility to simulate hypothetical scenarios without harming the business using What-If analysis tools and to retrieve highly refined information is an interesting way for achieving such business advantages. In a previous work, we introduced a hybridization model that combines What-If analysis and OLAP usage preferences, which helps filter the information and meet the users’ needs and business requirements without losing data quality. The main advantage is to provide the user with a way to overcome the difficulties that arise when dealing with the conventional What-If analysis scenario process. In this paper, we show an application of this methodology using a sample database, and compare the results of a conventional What-if process and our methodology. We designed and developed a specific piece of software, which aims to discover the best recommendations for What-If analysis scenarios’ parameters using OLAP usage preferences, which incorporates user experience in the definition and analysis of a target decision-making scenario.