Excel Chapter 6

Demonstrable Skill	Learning Activities & Informal Assessments	Formal Assessments (excluding Exams)
Use the Goal Seek tool.	Excel: What-If Analysis Participation Project MyLab Lesson B	Homework #2 MyLab Lesson B
Utilize the Scenario Manager to manage what-if cases.	Excel: What-If Analysis Participation Project MyLab Lesson B	Homework #2 MyLab Lesson B
Generate scenario summary reports.	Excel: What-If Analysis Participation Project MyLab Lesson B	MyLab Lesson B
Use the Solver add-in to solve for variables given constraints.	Excel: Solver Participation Project MyLab Lesson B	MyLab Lesson B
Create and modify cell range names.	MyLab Lesson B	MyLab Lesson B

Goal Seek and Scenario Manager

Goal Seek and Scenario Manager enable you to perform what-if analysis to make forecasts or predictions involving quantifiable data [1].

Goal Seek is a tool that allows you to specify a desired result from a formula without first knowing what input value reaches that goal. For example, Goal Seek can be used to determine the exact down payment required to acquire a desired monthly payment—an entire table is not needed to make this determination.

Goal Seek works backward to identify the exact value to reach a goal, uses the original worksheet data to change an input instead of displaying various combinations of results in a separate table, manipulates one variable and one result. Goal Seek does not produce a list of values to compare.

Scenario Manager is another what-if analysis tool that can be used to define and manage numerous scenarios and compare their effects on calculated results. Scenario Manager performs more sophisticated what-if analyses than data tables. Once created, scenarios can be edited and deleted.

Scenario Manager

Scenario Manager is often the most difficult part of Excel for students [4]. Be sure to watch the video below in the Suggested Resources section. The easiest way to use Scenario Manager is to highlight the cells you want to monitor (using Ctrl+Click) and then opening the Scenario Manager. That tells Excel that you want to monitor changes in those cells.

Goal Seek

This video is also available on YouTube [2].

Scenario Manager

This video is also available on YouTube [3].

1. A. Poatsy, K. Mulberry, C. Krebs, L. Hogan, A. Rutledge, and E. Cameron, Exploring Microsoft Office 2013, 1st ed., vol. 2. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, 2013.
2. 10minutetrain.com, Excel 2013 Tutorial 18: What if analysis (Goal Seek). 2014. Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFw6mpEuqcU.
3. Dummies.com, How to Use Excel 2013’s Scenario Manager For Dummies. 2013. Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTW9GTgBwaU.
4. R. G. Phipps and B. M. Powell, “Excel Chapter 6,” Computer Science 101, May 18, 2016. Available: http://cs101.wvu.edu/materials/units/excel-data-analysis/excel-chapter-6/.