TreeAge Pro is a sophisticated yet highly user-friendly software package that facilitates decision making in the face of complexity and uncertainty.
Features
Model Building
TreeAge Pro employs a structured methodology that breaks the problem into its component parts, distinguishing between the available decision options and the uncertainties associated with each. Based on this analysis, a model in the form of either a decision tree or an influence diagram is graphically displayed on screen, and the user interacts with it.
Many people prefer to structure a problem as a decision tree. Others find that building an influence diagram helps them to think through the problem. With TreeAge Pro you retain the flexibility to decide whether a particular problem is better modeled as a tree or an influence diagram. If you start with an influence diagram, TreeAge Pro can automatically convert it into the equivalent, asymmetrical decision tree - and having both forms of graphical output available can facilitate the often critically important task of communicating both your view of the problem and its proposed solution.
TreeAge Pro imposes no artificial restraints on the size or content of models. Unlike other software packages, there are no built-in limitations on the number or location of variables, nodes, decision options, chance events, etc. Of course, in light of the graphics involved, working with very large models can be expected to require substantial resources, both RAM and CPU.
Analysis
TreeAge Pro calculates the expected value of each scenario, identifies the decision maker's optimal strategy, and enables testing and analysis of the recommendation. Sensitivity analysis makes it possible to identify those uncertainties which - in light of the potential range of outcomes - are not critical to the decision at hand; for each uncertainty where further analysis and expense might be warranted, TreeAge Pro's value-of-information calculations will specify the most which should be spent in an effort to reduce or eliminate the uncertainty.
Analytical features include 1, 2 and 3-way sensitivity analyses, tornado diagrams, threshold analysis, single and comparative probability distribution graphs, Bayes' revision, Monte Carlo simulation and multi-attribute analysis. Markov processes and cost-effectiveness analysis are available through the TreeAge Pro Healthcare module.
Communicating Results
In addition to being able to display models graphically as both influence diagrams and decision trees, TreeAge Pro offers a wealth of supporting text and graphical reports.
Sensitivity analysis is used to test the sensitivity of a proposed course of action to changes in the projected value of one or more variables. For each variable, a range of values is substituted for the point value used in the model.