Browse Definitions :
Definition

what if scenario analysis (WISA)

What-if scenario analysis (WISA) is a business planning and modeling technique used to yield various projections for some outcome based on selectively changing inputs.

Scenario planning allows a business to respond to alternative situations more quickly and effectively because they have developed strategies to rely upon. A scenario, in this context, is a potential circumstance or combination of circumstances that could have a significant impact -- whether good or ill -- on an organization. 

A business can use what if scenario analysis to see how a given outcome, such as project costs, might be affected by changes in particular variables, such as the late delivery of supplies or the unavailability of key personnel. 

In project management, for example, WISA can help users see how changing data for specific dates and costs changes the completion date and/or total cost of the project. Alternate calculations with various inputs enables a more informed prediction about potential outcomes and allows the business to plan how to handle the various scenarios quickly and effectively.

In general, a what-if scenario is an informal speculation about how a given situation might be handled. For example, an interviewer might ask a prospective employee how he would handle a given situation.

See a video demonstration of what-if scenario analysis in Excel:

This was last updated in March 2015

Continue Reading About what if scenario analysis (WISA)

Networking
  • remote infrastructure management

    Remote infrastructure management, or RIM, is a comprehensive approach to handling and overseeing an organization's IT ...

  • port address translation (PAT)

    Port address translation (PAT) is a type of network address translation (NAT) that maps a network's private internal IPv4 ...

  • network fabric

    'Network fabric' is a general term used to describe underlying data network infrastructure as a whole.

Security
  • governance, risk and compliance (GRC)

    Governance, risk and compliance (GRC) refers to an organization's strategy for handling the interdependencies among the following...

  • total risk

    Total risk is an assessment that identifies all the risk factors associated with pursuing a specific course of action.

  • steganography

    Steganography is the technique of hiding data within an ordinary, nonsecret file or message to avoid detection; the hidden data ...

CIO
  • microtargeting

    Microtargeting (also called micro-niche targeting) is a marketing strategy that uses consumer data and demographics to identify ...

  • business process

    A business process is an activity or set of activities that accomplish a specific organizational goal. Business processes should ...

  • business process improvement (BPI)

    Business process improvement (BPI) is a practice in which enterprise leaders analyze their business processes to identify areas ...

HRSoftware
  • employee onboarding and offboarding

    Employee onboarding involves all the steps needed to get a new employee successfully deployed and productive, while offboarding ...

  • skill-based learning

    Skill-based learning develops students through hands-on practice and real-world application.

  • gamification

    Gamification is a strategy that integrates entertaining and immersive gaming elements into nongame contexts to enhance engagement...

Customer Experience
  • Microsoft Dynamics 365

    Dynamics 365 is a cloud-based portfolio of business applications from Microsoft that are designed to help organizations improve ...

  • Salesforce Commerce Cloud

    Salesforce Commerce Cloud is a cloud-based suite of products that enable e-commerce businesses to set up e-commerce sites, drive ...

  • Salesforce DX

    Salesforce DX, or SFDX, is a set of software development tools that lets developers build, test and ship many kinds of ...

Close