Augmenting decision making via interactive what-if analysis

An apparatus comprising a computer processor, a computer memory operatively coupled to the computer processor, the computer memory having disposed therein computer program instructions that, when executed by the computer processor, cause the apparatus to carry out the steps of:

• presenting, by a query execution engine, via a graphical user interface, a constrained analysis view that indicates a set of values for a plurality of driver variables that effect a target variable, the graphical user interface configured to receive requests for data and present data from datasets generated by the query execution engine;
• receiving, by the query execution engine, a state specification of the graphical user interface that includes a constraint on a value of a driver variable of the plurality of driver variables;
• generating, by the query execution engine, a database query using the received state specification, wherein the database query is composed to retrieve a query result from a cloud-based data warehouse;
• based on the query result, calculating, by the query execution engine, an updated set of values for the plurality of driver variables that result in an optimized value for the target variable while the constraint on the value of the driver variable is in effect;
• and
• presenting, by the query execution engine, the updated set of values in an updated constrained analysis view.

A computer program product disposed upon a non-transitory computer readable medium, the computer program product comprising computer program instructions that, when executed, cause a computer to carry out the steps of:

• presenting, by a query execution engine, via a graphical user interface, a constrained analysis view that indicates a set of values for a plurality of driver variables that effect a target variable, the graphical user interface configured to receive requests for data and present data from datasets generated by the query execution engine;
• receiving, by the query execution engine, a state specification of the graphical user interface that includes a constraint on a value of a driver variable of the plurality of driver variables;
• generating, by the query execution engine, a database query using the received state specification, wherein the database query is composed to retrieve a query result from a cloud-based data warehouse;
• based on the query result, calculating, by the query execution engine, an updated set of values for the plurality of driver variables that result in an optimized value for the target variable while the constraint on the value of the driver variable is in effect;
• and
• presenting, by the query execution engine, the updated set of values in an updated constrained analysis view.