Cross-impact analysis, also called interaction analysis, was developed in 1966 by the U.S. futurologist and management consultant Theodore Gordon and the German-American mathematician and futurologist Olaf Helmer.
It is a forecasting technique that examines and analyzes the correlation of events and displays them using a matrix of the same name.
Events and developments can condition, replace, cause or even prevent each other. The probability of an event is therefore not a single phenomenon to be considered in isolation, but depends in turn on whether other events occur or not.
Cross-impact analysis establishes links between events, shows the interactions of significant factors and is preferably used in the creation of scenarios (scenario technique).