Design and Develop

HollyRieke
HollyRieke
in Modeling

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In the Discover section, you explored important foundational resources available to you to get started on your model-building journey. In this section, you'll find resources to support you in the next level of designing and developing in your model.  

Get your build on (quickly!)

We're developing ASAP 'recipes' to provide model builders with technical and tactical guidance based on both internal and external expert Anaplan model builder knowledge.

Our 'recipes' quickly define what to build in multiple formats and bite-sized delivery methods, providing model building guard rails for quick updates to your models. Explore these tailored resources and leave us feedback on your success with these resources in the comments below.

  • Top-down allocations: Whether it's budgeting or quota-setting, allocations are a fundamental element of the planning process. When starting a planning process like this, you want to let the Anaplan platform do as much of the heavy lifting as possible, and in this case, that means automatically calculating the best starting point.
  • Historical snapshotting: Sometimes it's useful to see what the data was at, at a specific point in time. Historical Snapshotting refers to the ability within Anaplan to capture real-time data values and store them in a way that they will never change.

Suggested learning

  • This is How We Model: This article includes video content, thought leadership, and features both the PLANS and D.I.S.C.O. methodology which are essential for good model building. 
  • Best Practices for Module Design: This article effectively covers a variety of different topics related to module design best practices and includes links to other articles that go more in-depth.
  • Naming Conventions: This article provides ideas and examples of how to name various items within a model to ensure consistency and ease of use. Naming items appropriately ensures the model can survive the test of time while also saving time and effort for new model builders familiarizing themselves with the model.
  • Dimension Order: This article explains how and why dimension order has an impact on model performance. Updating module dimension order is easy to do and has a large impact on model performance.
  • Formula Structure for Performance: This article explains how the structure of a formula can impact model performance, which is critical to understand as a model builder. Poorly structured formulas can be a nightmare to clean up after the fact and can result in poor model performance.
  • Formula Optimization: This article provides information on how to effectively assess if your formula is structured in accordance with PLANS and D.I.S.C.O. methodology. 
  • Reduce Calculations for Better Performance: This article explains summary methods and formula repetition, which can have negative impacts on model performance if the model builder does not consider them in their build.
  • How to Create a Time Filter Module: This article explains the purpose of a time filter module and provides easy-to-follow steps on how to create one. Setting up a time filter module is essential to model building and should be established early in the model building process.
  • Conditional Logic: Does a List Item Appear in a Subset?:  This article explains how to add a line item to a system module to easily identify what's included in a subset, which can then be used in calculation modules.
  • Line Item Subsets Demystified: This article helps model builders understand the power of Line Item Subsets and how to build with them.
  • Memory Usage From Text Concatenation: This article highlights why following the Planual rules around the use of text and minimizing text joins is crucial to ensuring optimized model performance and why text and concatenation should be kept to a minimum.
  • The Truth About Sparsity: Part 1: This article clearly explains what sparsity is, shares how combined hierarchy lists have been a common technique to avoid it, and dispels some of the myths about sparsity.
  • The Truth About Sparsity: Part 2: This article discusses the modeling considerations for handling sparsity and the best approach to deliver an efficient model.

Video learning

Explore thought leadership from Anaplan experts throughout the ecosystem. 

Are there additional resources that you've found helpful in your practice? Support your peers by sharing your tips in the comments below.

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