I need to create an XY scatter chart that plots a single point across
4 dimensions. Most examples I've found - only show two - a single x
and y axis. I am scoring projects across 4 criteria - and want to
show which of four quandrants they fall into based on the 4 score
values I assign. Any help would be appreciated - Thanks |
Request for Question Clarification by
answerguru-ga
on
01 Aug 2003 08:12 PDT
Hello there,
Typically plots really only make sense to the human eye when consider
three or less dimensions, and that is why you haven't seen WXYZ
scattergraphs (they don't exist within Excel's base functionality).
Perhaps you could elaborate on what type of informatin you are dealing
with and I could provide you with some options for comparing
quadruples.
answerguru-ga
|
Clarification of Question by
dlaff-ga
on
01 Aug 2003 10:29 PDT
Four Axis: Impact (low to high), Cost (low to high), Resource req.
(low to high), Scope (Well defined to poorly defined). Imagine the
graph like a radar screen. a project plot would appear in the
appropriate quadrant such as: A low cost project, requiring lots of
resources - with a poorly defined scope, but the impact is about
average. The best projects would plot towards the upper right of the
graph, the worst towards the lower left.
I hope this helps
|
Request for Question Clarification by
answerguru-ga
on
01 Aug 2003 11:38 PDT
Hmm, I see what you mean but you still have a problem here - an 'axis'
is defined a straight line, so a two-axis graph would intersect to
provide four quadrants. Unless your four criteria are 100% dependant
(pairwise), this will not work. Do you see my point?
answerguru-ga
|
Request for Question Clarification by
maniac-ga
on
01 Aug 2003 14:55 PDT
Hello Dlaff,
Hmm. An interesting problem. The only other mechanism I might suggest
is something similar to a "Karnaugh Map".
http://www.maxmon.com/kmaps1.htm
this site has a few simple examples. The four input function is in the
lower right. The idea is you can group the low/high values for each
input into a single square. Also note that a "gray code" (0, 1, 3, 2)
is usually used in a Karnaugh Map to index the squares, but you could
use normal values (0-3) instead to represent something like
low impact/low cost
low impact/high cost
high impact/low cost
high impact/high cost
across the X or Y axis.
This is definitely not built into Excel, but it might be possible with
a grid of charts. Would something like this be considered as an
answer?
--Maniac
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