Break Circular Reference

sgk6

Hi all,

 

I'm trying to set up a project planning model in Anaplan.

As part of this setup, I'm trying to calculate the start date and end dates based on the dependencies.

 

The logic I'm trying to build is as below,

 

Start Date = IF ISBLANK(Dependent Step) THEN Project Start Date + Lead Time ELSE End Date(LOOKUP: Dependent Step) + Duration 

End Date = Start Date + Duration

 

But, if you see above there is a circular reference between Start Date and End Date. 

Can someone please help me to break this circular reference or suggest any alternative for this.

 

Attached SS for your reference.

 

 

 

anikdas

Hi @sgk6 ,

As this is a time based circular reference, you will need to convert the steps by timescale first. In order to do that, create a module with project steps and time (day) as dimension. Then use a combination of lag to find out the actual start and end dates. Once done, bring back the results in the original module. Below are the screenshots and attached blueprints. One small thing - review the actual start date formula - when there is a dependent step, start date of next step should be end date of previous step + 1 and not end date of previous step + duration.

 

Hope this helps.

ManjunathKN

Hi @sgk6 ,

 

can you create a staging line item for End date, use Lag or Lead formula with strict and substitute in staging line item and refer that line item in your start date formula.

 

Thanks,

Manjunath

sgk6

Hi @ManjunathKN , thanks for your response!
Could you please elaborate on how to use the LAG or Lead in this context as I'm not using the timescale dimension in this module.

sgk6

Thank you so much for the explanation @anikdas ! 🙂

It worked perfectly fine!

 

Regards,

Sooraj