New Palisade @Risk 8 Beta 2 – Exciting or Boring?!
Pedram Danesh-Mand
President of Risk Engineering Society, Head of Project Controls & PMO at KPMG Australia
The new beta release of Palisade @Risk, version 8 is now available! It has been a long journey since my first exposure to @Risk software for Lotus – DOS!! :) in fact the first version was released in 1987. @Risk and the DecisionTools Suite gives users a full set of integrated programs for quantitative risk analysis and decision making by using a number of techniques including Monte Carlo Simulation.
Many clients regularly ask our team about the latest developments in this space and new industry capabilities as well as available alternatives - any saving opportunity?! - to improve their quantitative risk analysis (QRA) performance and decision making processes. This article is a summary of key upgrades from @Risk 7.6 to @Risk 8 Beta 2.
But before, please note that @Risk 8 Beta 2 works under a beta license that will cease to function on 1/Apr/2020, hence it is provided “as is”, without warranty of any kind, express or implied. You may install @RISK 8 without removing any previous installations of @RISK 7 or earlier, however you cannot run two platforms at the same time. Let’s now looks under the hood.
Welcome Screen
- @Risk 7.6
- @Risk 8
The welcome screen now has a list of recently simulated workbooks which is good. It will also regularly updated with some relevant industry news from Palisade – BORING!
Graphical design and appearance
- @Risk 7.6
- @Risk 8
Ribbon now uses split buttons which contain both a simple button and a drop down menu, allowing access to many additional items directly from the ribbon. - BORING!
Color Palette and Graphing Preferences
- @Risk 7.6
- @Risk 8
More modern, extended color palette and graphical preferences - EXCITING!
Distributions
- @Risk 7.6
- @Risk 8
The distribution section of software has been significantly updated (positively!) including additional editing capabilities and creating “Predefined Distributions” – EXCITING!
Correlation Matrix and Copula
- @Risk 7.6
- @Risk 8: in previous versions, correlation matrices and copulas were edited with different interfaces. In @Risk 8, they use a same interface. Despite few minor improvements, e.g. defining repeated correlations – BORING!
Time Series
- @Risk 7.6
- @Risk 8: the time series functionality has been improved considerably! Including improvement in interface for selecting time series enabling model display in multiple views. In addition, fitting algorithms improved. I wish I had these when doing assignments back at uni! :) - EXCITING!
Simulation Settings
- @Risk 7.6
- @Risk 8: some improvements including automatic iterations maximum and the automatic display of simulation results in the ribbon. In addition some advance analysis have been incorporated into the Simulation Settings – EXCITING!
Explore Menu
- @Risk 7.6: did not have this
- @Risk 8: new item including Scenarios – EXCITING!
Reports
- @Risk 7.6
- @Risk 8: significantly improved by capturing a wide range of reports under one menu. Also instead of needing to specify scenarios for each output individually, the scenarios will automatically be applied to all outputs. – EXCITING!
Simulation Reports: not that much change - BORING!
- @Risk 7.6
- @Risk 8
Examples
- @Risk 8: new “Examples” menu, including dynamic examples, i.e. having interactive components – EXCITING!
Resources
- @Risk 8 – EXCITING!
Link between @Risk and Microsoft Project
- @Risk 7.7: link with MSP enabling schedule risk analysis
- @Risk 8: link with MSP is not included! This means running Monte Carlo simulation of MSP schedules is not available in @Risk 8. BORING!
Simulation Run-Time
- @Risk 7.6
- @Risk 8: in our test runs using few recent real case studies, the simulation run-time for @Risk 8 was almost twice as runtime with @Risk 7.6! I hope this will addressed before the final release – Very BORING!
Time for our overall verdict, so far we have quite liked the new features and capabilities of @Risk 8 Beta 2 version. It seems @Risk 8 will continue to stay in our risk analytics toolbox as a key QRA tool – at least for NOW! :)
Some suggestions for improvement:
- Faster simulation runtime
- Addressing Schedule Risk Analysis
- Improving correlation matrix and correlation analysis
- Improving allocation of contingencies
- Configurable reports
- Improving scenario analysis capabilities
- Improving sensitivity analysis
- Improving tornado reports
If you are interested in the theory and practical concept of schedule and cost risk analysis, the 2nd Edition of Contingency Guideline has been recently released in May 2019 by Risk Engineering Society. For a free copy of the Guideline, send me a note to: PDaneshMand@kpmg.com.au
What is your view on Palisade @Risk 8 or its earlier versions? Exciting or Boring?!
The views expressed in this article are those of Pedram Danesh-Mand and do not reflect or represent the official policy, position or recommendation of the KPMG Australia, Engineers Australia (EA) or Risk Engineering Society (RES).
Trading at Raízen | Structured Finance Desk | Credit & Trade Finance | Funding, Loans, Securities, Rates, FX
4yPlease if someone have the setup.exe of @Risk 7.6, could you send it to me? @Risk 8.0 has discontinued the integration with Microsoft Project but I really need this feature! I'm doing my Thesis in Construction and Scheduling Management. Contact: patrickmellow@hotmail.com
Director, Analytics and risk management | PMI-RMP | CRM | CD
4yThanks Pedram for the very interesting review. For me, not being able to interface with MS Project would be a deal breaker and looks like a major step back. I sure hope this only stands for the beta version and that the Pro version will maintain this. Most of the changes looks rather minor and cosmetic for a major update. Now, if only our most excellent Risk Management Software Guru from Belgium would offer different licensing models, ModelRisk looks much better functionality wise.
Director of Vose Software. Risk Consultant. Advisor on quantitative IRM deployment.
4ySo the new version offers no new tools, has removed others, and is much slower?
Delivery Manager @ Sydney Water | Certified Practising Project Manager
4yGillian Cottle 🤔
FOUNDER | MANAGING DIRECTOR AT GOLDEN RATIO INTERNATIONAL
4yExciting! Pedram Danesh-Mand as you mentioned @Risk “...is to stay with you at least for now...” which other softwares are you testing/using in comparison to @Risk?