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了解anplan ALM中的模型同步

多里安人Baverstock

产品负责人

The customer response to Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) in Anaplan’s 2016.4 release has been outstanding. Within days of the launch, several customers were using ALM, and the number grows daily. Because there’s so much interest, I want to share some general thoughts (beyond what’s in the documentation) on what’s needed for ALM to synchronize models. I’ll also lay out a couple of scenarios where customers find this feature useful.

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First, let’s understand what’s needed for synchronization using ALM. Synchronization between compatible models requires two conditions:

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  1. The two models must have a common origin. That means they both originated from the same revision—such as when one model has been copied to produce two models.
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  2. Only one of two the models can have structural (that is, metadata) changes after it was copied or synced.
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With those two conditions met, you can sync from the model with changes to the model without changes. The rule is that the target model version must be in the revision history of the source. To put it the other way around, the source model can only have moved on from the current revision of the target. If two models have a common origin but metadata is changed in both, then syncing is not possible.

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That’s one reason why it’s a best practice to keep a production or test model in deployed mode at all times.

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ALM is especially helpful when a production application is split into multiple actual models. Let’s explore this synchronization capability in one of two scenarios:

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  • Split models. Our largest customers often use a split production model. In these cases, the customer would like to have a single model but chooses not to, to improve performance because of the model’s size. In a split model, the metadata is identical across the set of split models. ALM sync can update all of the models from a single development model or update one production model from another. The revision tags in the production models will confirm that they all are at the same stage. Before ALM, changes required manual updates and downtime of the production application.
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  • Similar models. In some cases, customers have a set of similar models, and adapt them to be the same with respect to metadata. This enables them to maintain them in a single development model. The conversion to achieve a common development model can be a complex job. A major consumer packaged goods (CPG) customer does this: they have a separate model for each geographic market because user activities in each market vary and market-specific dashboards are required. They have to implement all required dashboards (and navigation paths, and other criteria) in the single development model, then carefully set up user roles, role-based access to modules and dashboards, and market-specific navigation paths to ensure that each user sees only what they need. Once that’s done, they can then sync from the development model to the market-specific production models.
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In both these scenarios, all of the big hierarchies of the model would be set as production lists, and would be imported into the production models from a data hub—effectively, master data. The development model would use cut-down versions of these lists to keep the model small—usually, very much smaller than the production models.

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I hope this clarifies the power of, and strategy behind, our implementation of ALM and specifically the model synchronization feature. If you have questions, please reach out in the Anaplan community or post a question here.

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客户对应用程序生命周期管理(ALM)的响应anplan的2016.4版本一直很出色。在发布后的几天内，就有几个客户使用了ALM，而且这个数字每天都在增长。因为有这么多的兴趣，我想分享一些一般的想法(除了在文档)关于ALM需要什么来同步模型。我还将列出客户发现该特性有用的几个场景。

首先，让我们了解使用ALM进行同步需要什么。兼容模型之间的同步需要两个条件:

  1. 这两个模型必须有一个共同的起源。这意味着它们都源于同一修订版——比如当一个模型被复制成两个模型时。
  2. 在复制或同步后，两个模型中只有一个可以有结构(即元数据)更改。

满足这两个条件后，您就可以从有更改的模型同步到没有更改的模型。规则是目标模型版本必须在源版本的修订历史中。换句话说，源模型只能从目标的当前版本移动。如果两个模型有一个共同的起源，但是两个模型中的元数据都被改变了，那么同步是不可能的。

这就是为什么将生产或测试模型始终保持在部署模式是最佳实践的原因之一。

当生产应用程序被分割成多个实际模型时，ALM特别有用。让我们在以下两种场景中探索这种同步功能:

  • 分割模型．我们最大的客户经常使用分割生产模式。在这些情况下，客户希望拥有单个模型，但由于模型的大小，为了提高性能而选择不这样做。在分割模型中，元数据在分割模型集之间是相同的。ALM同步可以从单个开发模型更新所有模型，或者从另一个生产模型更新一个生产模型。生产模型中的修订标签将确认它们都处于同一阶段。在ALM之前，更改需要手动更新和停机的生产应用程序。
  • 类似的模型．在某些情况下，客户有一组相似的模型，并对它们进行调整，使它们在元数据方面相同。这使他们能够在单个开发模型中维护它们。实现公共开发模型的转换可能是一项复杂的工作。主要的包装消费品(CPG)客户是这样做的:他们对每个地理市场都有单独的模型，因为每个市场的用户活动各不相同，需要特定于市场的仪表板。他们必须在单个开发模型中实现所有必需的指示板(以及导航路径和其他标准)，然后仔细地设置用户角色、基于角色的对模块和指示板的访问，以及特定于市场的导航路径，以确保每个用户只看到他们需要的东西。一旦完成，他们就可以从开发模型同步到特定于市场的生产模型。

在这两种场景中，模型的所有大层次结构都将被设置为生产列表，并将从数据中心(实际上是主数据)导入到生产模型中。开发模型将使用这些列表的精简版本来保持模型较小——通常比生产模型小得多。

我希望这能澄清我们实现ALM的力量和背后的策略，特别是模型同步特性。如果你有问题，请在Anaplan社区或者在这里提问。