Variance

This technique is useful for data types that are numeric in nature. It can also be applied to Date/Time values.

This follows a statistical approach where we try to algorithmically vary the input data by a factor of +/- X percent. The value of X purely depends on the analysis we are doing and shouldn’t have an overall impact on understanding the business figures.

Let's see a few examples:

Input Data

Output Data

Method

Explanation

100

110

Fixed variance

Increase by 10%

-100

90

Fixed variance

Decrease by 10%

1-Jan-2000

1-Feb-2000

Fixed variance

Add 1 month

1-Aug-2000

1-Jul-2000

Fixed variance

Reduce by 1 month

100

101

Dynamic variance

1% to 5% increase or decrease

100

105

Dynamic

1% to 5% increase or decrease