Ben Richardson takes us through a what-if analysis:
What If Analysis is a modelling technique used to evaluate different outcomes by changing key input variables.
In Power BI, it uses What If parameters and dynamic DAX measures that recalculate outputs based on user input. Users can ask questions like:
- “What if sales increase by 10%?”
- “What if production costs drop by 5%?”
The parameters are created in the Modelling tab, where you define value ranges. Power BI automatically generates a slicer and a measure, which can then be used in DAX calculations to dynamically adjust metrics like revenue, cost, or profit.
Read on to see how it works, understanding that you have to provide the formulas for behavior. In other words, if your what-if parameter is around the unit price of some product, there is no built-in concept of price elasticity for the product. That’s something you’d have to implement yourself.