Excel Basics to Blackbelt
An Accelerated Guide to Decision Support Designs

Master the hidden capabilities of Excel and related applications, crafting tools to help you and others become blackbelts in analysis.

Elliot Bendoly (Author)

9781108738361, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 28 May 2020

450 pages
25.2 x 17.7 x 2 cm, 0.94 kg

This third edition capitalizes on the success of the previous editions and leverages the important advancements in visualization, data analysis, and sharing capabilities that have emerged in recent years. It serves as an accelerated guide to decision support designs for consultants, service professionals and students. This 'fast track' enables a ramping up of skills in Excel for those who may have never used it to reach a level of mastery that will allow them to integrate Excel with widely available associated applications, make use of intelligent data visualization and analysis techniques, automate activity through basic VBA designs, and develop easy-to-use interfaces for customizing use. The content of this edition has been completely restructured and revised, with updates that correspond with the latest versions of software and references to contemporary add-in development across platforms. It also features best practices in design and analytical consideration, including methodical discussions of problem structuring and evaluation, as well as numerous case examples from practice.

Section 1. Getting Oriented: 1. Necessary Foundations for Decision Support
2. The Common Development Environment
3. Acquisition, Cleaning and Consolidation
Section 2. Structuring Intelligence: 4. Estimating and Appreciating Uncertainty
5. Visualizing Estimates, System Dynamics and Risk
Section 3. Prescription Development: 6. The Analytics of Solution Search
7. Searches in Highly Complex and Uncertain Landscapes
Section 4. Advanced Automation and Interfacing: 8. VBA Editing and Code Development
9. Application and User Interfacing
Glossary of Key Terms
Appendix A: Workbook Shortcut (Hot Key) Reference
Appendix B: Blackbelt Ribbon Add-In Tools and Functions.

Subject Areas: Computer science [UY], Database software [UNS], Excel [UFCE], Applied mathematics [PBW], Business strategy [KJC], Econometrics [KCH]