The Art of Modeling with Spreadsheets: Management Science, Spreadsheet Engineering, and... by Stephen G. Powell and Kenneth R. Baker

The Art of Modeling with Spreadsheets: Management Science, Spreadsheet Engineering, and...

Features

Cover Type: Hard Cover with 432 pages

Published by: Wiley; Har/Cdr edition August 21, 2003

Written in: English

ISBN 10 Number: 0471209376

ISBN 13 Number: 978-0471209379

Book Dimensions: 10.3 x 8.2 x 0.9 inches

Weighs: 2.3 pounds

Product Description
Successful business modeling is much more than a technical discipline; it's an art. And as in most professional disciplines, you can tell the experts apart from the novices by the creativity they bring to the craft. That's why Steve Powell and Ken Baker's THE ART OF MODELING WITH SPREADSHEETS covers spreadsheet engineering, management science techniques, and those essential craft skills needed to develop real expertise in business modeling. Features: * Balanced and streamlined coverage of spreadsheet engineering, management science techniques, and modeling craft. * The CD-ROM packaged with this text features all of the spreadsheets referred to in the text, as well as three software tools of special importance to business analysts: Premium Solver, Crystal Ball, and Sensitivity Toolkit (featuring four sensitivity tools)

Back Cover Copy
Develop state-of-the-art modeling skills

Successful business modeling is much more than a technical discipline; it’s an art. And as in most professional disciplines, you can tell the experts apart from the novices by the creativity they bring to the craft. Now with Steve Powell and Ken Baker’s The Art of Modeling with Spreadsheets, you can master the technical knowledge as well as those essential craft skills needed to develop real expertise in business modeling.

You’ll learn:

Effective methods for designing, building, and testing models, and for performing model-based analyses;
Non-technical, craft skills that expert modelers commonly employ, such as abstracting a situation, debugging a model, and translating model results into managerial insights; and
Standard statistical and management science techniques used in business today, such as data analysis, simulation, and optimization.

Get the tools of the trade!

The CD-ROM packaged wit h t his text features all of the spreadsheets referred to in the text, as well as three software tools of special importance to business analysts:

Premium Solver
Crystal Ball
Sensitivity Toolkit (featuring four sensitivity tools)

Reader Reviews
Powell takes the interesting approach of showing how to model a solution to a problem, and using a spreadsheet as the engine within which to embed the solution. Who would have thought in the 70s, when the first computer spreadsheets arose, that one day they could be applied to this? Much of the book revolves around the issues of modelling. How to extract this from a problem. Here, this is as in many other texts. But we then see how a spreadsheet can be built up, with the equations that relate a group of input cells to write a value in an output cell, being those that model the solution. To a computer programmer, this use of a spreadsheet might seem a little confining. After all, shouldn't you write code in some general purpose language like C++ or Java, to do this? But the number of programmers who can do this well is fairly small. Whereas spreadsheets have a far broader audience, even in terms of who is able to program them. That is the audience Powell writes for. Comment | | (Report this)

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Updated on 6-3-2008.