Talk:Sensitivity analysis

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Added some stuff about its relation to business's, not sure if youll like it!--lincs_geezer 04:23, 6 December 2005 (UTC)--lincs_geezer 04:23, 6 December 2005 (UTC)

Wikipedia sometimes baffles me. I write a perfectly straightforward section, and then someone comes along and rewords it to mean exactly the same thing but practically imcomprehensible to the passer by. Simple facts and theories should be left understandable to everyone in my opinion....--lincs_geezer 00:40, 16 September 2006 (UTC)

"what-if" analysis???? I have never heard anyone actually use this terminology and it should just be deleted, I am a statistical consultant. peace

'What if' analysis is a subset of the Sensitivity analysis. Sensitivity analysis is done using a number of what if analysis. To clear this further, let us take an event that is affected by two parameters. 'What-if' parameter A is altered? What is the effect on the output? this forms the 'what if' analysis. When n number of such analysis is performed and based on them a uniform causal formula or relationship is aimed at, then that becomes the senstivity analysis. Both are needed. Whereas what if is single incident, senstivity is based on multiple such incidents.

Within microbiological risk asessment there is some debate over whether sensitivity analysis and "what-if" analysis (perhaps more elegantly termed scenario analysis) are two separate things - the aim is perhaps narrowly defined for scenario analysis (what is the effect of changing the values of an input by so much on the output?) - but in the end a very simple scenario analysis (e.g. manually changing the value of your model parameters) seems to me a very similar process to a very simple sensitivity analysis (as alluded to above). In my opinion a passing comment that "what-if?" scenarios can be investigated using sensitivity analysis methods would be all that is necessary.