Formula Calculatin Time

Question

I have a MAPS formula calculation time of 8,929,021ms - which I think is around 149minutes ( dived by 1000 to give seconds, divided agian by 60 to give minutes. Is this correct?

If it is correct - how does Anaplan deal with such a long calculation time?

Thanks in advance for your help.

rob_marshall · Accepted Answer

@ChrisG532

While that number is correct, the time for a calculation in real life (your model) will be considerable less because of the multi-threading that Anaplan can do.  When we run the snapshot for MAPS, since we doing the calculations/model opens in a different environment, we can not take advantage of the multi-threading, we can only do the calculations sequentially so the MAPS numbers will be higher.

Hopefully this helps.

devrathahuja · Accepted Answer

@rob_marshall - In that case how should we best make use of the MAPS report? Since it might not be beneficial to target items with a high calc effort as per the MAPS then if in reality the time/effort taken is very low due to multi-threading.

rob_marshall · Accepted Answer

@devrathahuja I disagree, the high calc effort is what it is as that structure is the same, just the numbers are different so it is still beneficial to review them.

devrathahuja · Accepted Answer

@rob_marshall - Shouldn't the MAPS then be in line with the calc effort column in the model? It's often confusing how to make use of the MAPS, Calc effort in the model & the model open analysis together to best optimize the model. (Understandable that the model open would be for the initial load only, then at least using the rest 2 information?)

rob_marshall · Accepted Answer

@devrathahuja

Again, MAPS shows the structure of the model including the structure of the line item logic.  Calculation Effort in Classic shows how long it takes the logic to calculate and then shows that as a percentage of the full calculation of the model (model open).  Then, when you add/delete logic, calculation effort then does a delta to the full number, but does not do a full process again (the only way to do that is to close and open the model again).  The opportunity with this is very small models can give large Calculation Efforts when in actuality, it is very small (because everything adds up to 100%).  On bigger models, I would say Calculation Effort is more in line.

More to your question, MAPS is showing how the logic is defined, the number of true calculations that are needed (a routine IF statement has 3 calculations - the IF part, the THEN part, and then the ELSE part).  Now, if that IF statement is nested with 7 others, then the number of calculations gets ramped up to 21 (when you don't have AND's or OR's).

People get hung up on the calculation time from the MAPS report, but really should be focusing on how the logic was put together and how many calculations are being kicked off.

devrathahuja · Accepted Answer

@rob_marshall - Thank you for the additional insights!

So do I understand it correctly that to make the best use of the MAPS, we should ignore the absolute calc time but just use it to identify the largest line items as per that in the model and then revisit those in terms of formulas/best practices etc to optimize the performance?

rob_marshall · Accepted Answer

@devrathahuja yep, correct as I typically look at the BPI value

The quickest/easiest win, in my estimation, is looking at the over dimensionalized line items because, by definition, those line items are making then engine work harder (do more) than it really needs to.

devrathahuja · Accepted Answer

@rob_marshall - Got it, thank you! :)

Also, QQ, is the BPI value now part of new MAPS reports? The last report I have only has the BPI value as high/very high etc with no absolute value

rob_marshall · Accepted Answer

@devrathahuja not part of the MAPS report, but it is part of the line item detail information that the BP can export for you.

devrathahuja · Accepted Answer

@rob_marshall - Okay, I'll check with him. Thank you!!