Warning message before, not after Synchronisation [Lack of Space]

Noward

Hello everyone,

 

I think it would be good to have some sort of warning message appearing before you decide to push Synchronise in the Compare/Sync windows.

 

Many times (and not just myself, but my colleagues as well) when the synchronisation starts we need to wait for Anaplan to push all the required changes - or at least attempt to push them to the deployed model, when finally at the end it gives a message that there is X amount of space missing.

 

What is even more frustrating is that sometimes this process takes 15mins - and you are unable to do anything.

 

I therefore would appreciate if there was a way to estimate at least the size of the model post the synchronisation.

I see it not as an extra space in between, but rather something that can be requested bby users on demand?

Ideally it should do the same re-calculation of the model (like during sync), but without deploying any changes to Live - just doing a dry-run.

 

A couple of examples why I think it is needed (apart from above).

 

1) Production Lists

Production lists are really useful when it comes to saving space in other environments (DEV/TEST) as the model is expected to be used in Production mode.

In most cases DEV is just limited to a short amount of data to allow the first set of testing to happen as well as to help the development process.

TEST usually has more data as this is where UAT happens, therefore users do need some data for their testing too. It is almost never the same size or with the same number of items as Production.

When doing the sync you can not just expect the same model size due to number of factors (nr of list elements etc).

 

2) Estimation of the size

When using the non-production lists, the size of the model is easy to guess as it matches that in DEV and TEST.

When using multiple production lists it is becoming more difficult to work the predicted size yourself as you need to 'work out' the impact on size from each production list and then model it.

Something that can be done, but the nr of factors to consider varies between models, so a time consuming exercise.

 

I think Anaplan could provide such estimate on demand (and I mean not by asking the support) before attempting to do any release (sync). 

 

From a Model Administrator perspective that would make it easier for us to manage the size of the Workspace, Models and would give us a tool to make good calls whether we are ready for another release of the development or not.

Miran

Status changed to: New

andrewtye

Nice idea. Often i've found that if some developments have increased a Test model by x% then it normally stands that Live is likely to increase by a similarish percentage.

But knowing that it won't sync beforehand would be helpful - at least you can do something about it rather than as you say wait to be told.