Author: James Cannon is a Certified Master Anaplaner, Solution Architect, and Senior Manager at Ernst & Young.
In any enterprise Anaplan implementation, regular maintenance windows are essential for model stability, performance optimization, and ongoing business value. However, without proper structure, communication, and execution, these windows can lead to unnecessary disruption and end user dissatisfaction. Drawing on more than ten years of Anaplan implementation experience across industries, this guide outlines a structured approach to planning and executing successful maintenance windows, ensuring minimal impact and maximum operational continuity.
Plan the maintenance window strategically
The foundation of a well-executed maintenance window is strategic and well-communicated timing. Maintenance should never be scheduled without first understanding the organization’s planning cycles and business rhythms. It is essential to align proposed windows with the business calendar to avoid conflicts with critical activities such as month-end close, quarterly forecasting, or board reporting. This coordination should extend across all relevant geographies to account for regional time zones and operational dependencies.
Organizations benefit from adopting a consistent maintenance cadence, typically on a quarterly or monthly basis, to instill predictability and reduce disruption. Each window should follow a documented maintenance runbook that outlines the scope of tasks, responsible teams, escalation protocols, and a rollback strategy if issues arise. Maintaining a centrally accessible calendar that tracks all planned and historical maintenance events promotes transparency and supports broader IT governance. (Bonus points if you build an Anaplan model to centrally house the maintenance calendar!)
Communicate clearly and early with stakeholders
Clear and timely communication is critical to the success of the model maintenance. Stakeholders — including business users, IT teams, model builders, and integration partners — should be notified at least two weeks prior to the planned window. This initial communication should include the timing, duration, systems impacted, and anticipated benefits of the maintenance. Follow-up reminders should be sent closer to the date, with a final confirmation an hour before the window begins. In addition to email, it is advisable to leverage internal collaboration tools such as Slack or Microsoft Teams, as well as banners on App UX’s to display announcements, if applicable.
Setting accurate expectations is critical. Stakeholders should be informed of what will and will not be accessible during the window, the expected downtime for each environment, and how scheduled integrations may be affected. This level of transparency builds trust and allows end users to plan accordingly.
Prepare the system prior to the maintenance window
Before the maintenance window begins, system administrators and model builders should complete a thorough pre-maintenance checklist, which should be made available in the maintenance documentation. This should include pausing all scheduled jobs, including Anaplan Connect scripts, CloudWorks or ADO schedules, or any third-party integrations. Failure to do so may result in partial data loads, failed jobs, or data corruption.
Backing up models is an absolute best practice. Every production model should be archived with a timestamped name that adheres to the organization's versioning conventions. If any enhancements or bug fixes are to be deployed during the window, these changes must be fully tested in a development or UAT environment and validated by relevant stakeholders.
In certain cases, it may be appropriate to temporarily restrict user access to workspaces undergoing significant changes. This helps prevent simultaneous edits and ensures system stability during deployment activities.
Execute the maintenance activities with precision
During the maintenance window, all activities should be tracked in real time using a shared checklist or coordination tool (ideally, an Anaplan model with the maintenance tasks and check lists). Each task — whether it involves deploying Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) changes, performing model cleanup, or validating integrations — should be assigned to a named owner who is accountable for its completion. A designated point of contact should be available throughout the window to answer any questions from the business or IT teams.
Maintenance windows offer an excellent opportunity to perform system housekeeping. This includes archiving outdated models, purging unused lists and modules, deleting obsolete saved views, and optimizing model structures to reduce cell count and improve performance. If changes are being promoted between environments using ALM, they should be deployed in alignment with the organization’s change management process. Immediate post-deployment testing is required to confirm model integrity and functional correctness.
Validate and communicate post-maintenance activities
After the maintenance window concludes, a structured validation process should begin. This involves executing test cases to confirm that data outputs, calculations, and workflows are functioning as expected. Organizations that have implemented automated testing frameworks should run these scripts as part of the standard validation protocol.
Once confidence in the system’s stability has been restored, scheduled jobs and integrations should be re-enabled. Teams responsible for data orchestration must closely monitor job execution logs in the 24 hours following the window to quickly detect and resolve any unexpected behavior.
The final step in a successful maintenance window is formal closure communication. This message should be sent to all stakeholders, confirming that the system is fully operational and detailing the completed tasks, any changes made, and any known issues or next steps. Additionally, contact information for support or escalation should be provided.
Institutionalize best practices
Organizations that consistently manage successful maintenance windows embed several best practices into their operations. These include using the maintenance window to optimize model performance, improve naming conventions, and review integration efficiency. If applicable, rotating API credentials or refreshing OAuth tokens during these windows can help avoid future outages.
Maintaining an internal change log that documents each action taken during the window, as well as any issues encountered, ensures accountability and provides a reference for audits or future troubleshooting. It is also valuable to conduct a brief retrospective meeting with relevant stakeholders within 48 hours of the window. This meeting should review what went well, what challenges were faced, and how the process can be improved in subsequent windows.
Conclusion
A well-managed Anaplan maintenance window is not simply a technical event — it is a demonstration of operational maturity. With thoughtful planning, disciplined execution, and clear communication, organizations can minimize disruption, enhance model performance, and maintain the trust of their business users. By adopting the strategies outlined in this guide, teams can institutionalize excellence in how they manage Anaplan at scale.
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