HOWTO

In most DPL models, decisions are made to maximize or minimize some quantity, and they can and should be left unconstrained. You can never have too much NPV, for example. However, some decision problems require making tradeoffs among several decisions where not all possible decision policies (i.e., combinations of decision alternatives) are feasible. For example, your company may only be able to launch one or two new products a year.

This blog posts describes various steps that may be taken to validate that a DPL/Excel model is computationally correct. The actual testing/validation required will depend on the particulars of your model and the circumstances of the analysis. Accordingly, this is more of a menu one can pick and choose from rather than a checklist. If you use other methods not listed, and they may be generally useful, please add them in the comments section below.

Do you find it annoying that your model consists of both a DPL workspace file (e.g., FOO.DA) and an Excel workbook (FOO.XLSX)? Well, don't despair, embed!