Patent ID: 8473078

Claim:
A system comprising: a regression computer subsystem to: receive identification of: a number of components of a financial analysis application, wherein the financial analysis application includes funding data from a plurality of funding sources during a time frame and expense data from a plurality of project associated costs during the time frame; input values of a number of independent variables of the financial analysis application including: a number of metrics, each metric measuring or determining a characteristic of at least one of the number of components; a number of parameters, each parameter affecting performance of at least one of the number of components; and input values of a number of dependent variables of the financial analysis application including a target; and perform regressions analysis to determine at least one relationship between the input values of the number of independent variables and the input values of the number of dependent variables and generate one or more regression functions expressing the at least one relationship, wherein the one or more regression functions result in the target as a function of at least one of the number of independent variables; and an optimization computer subsystem to analyze the one or more regression functions and generate an optimized target, wherein the optimized target includes a determined target value of the target and a determined value for each of the at least one independent variables to produce the determined target value using the one or more regression functions; wherein the system generates a new optimized target in response to at least one of the number of components being updated and the updated component having a different value for at least one of the number of independent variables, wherein the at least one of the number of updated components includes a change in an operating capability of the updated component.