Cluster Setup Stage

You can use this stage to perform what-if analysis by defining one or more scenarios that are based on a specified number of clusters and attributes. You can select one or more attributes and assign different weights to the attributes. The attributes and weights you assign are then fed to the clustering analytics to calculate the weighted distance. Using these scenarios, you can experiment with different numbers of clusters, participating attributes, and their weights. You can either define the maximum number or the minimum number of clusters or alternatively define a specific number of clusters that you want to be generated. Once the scenarios are generated, different scenarios can be compared. You can also use other features in this stage to copy or delete scenarios.

Process

Here is the high-level process for setting up scenarios.

1. Either select the name of a scenario you want to modify or enter a name for the new cluster you want to create.

2. If you want the application to optimize the number of clusters, enter minimum and maximum values for the number of clusters.

3. If you want the application to generate a specific number of clusters, enter that value. In this case, the application generates the exact number of clusters and provides the optimal number of clusters as informational data.

4. Optionally, configure the weights assigned to the attributes. The total must add up to 100 percent. Use a value of 0 percent if you do not want a specific attribute to be part of the clustering process.

5. Click the Execute icon to execute the scenario. Once the processing is complete, you see the results in the Cluster Results stage.

6. To see a list of all scenarios and the status for each, go to the Scenario List tab.

7. To compare the defining characteristics of two different scenarios, go to the Scenario Compare tab.