[ALM] Data refresh development model with data of the production model

[Guido.kaandorp]

In most of our models we are using ALM. With this we promote structural changes from development into test/production model. Sometimes our dev/test model has messed-up data, which causing we can't do proper testing. To avoid this we sometimes delete the dev/test model (after all changes has been synchronized to production) and create a new dev/test model as a fresh copy of Production.

The down side of this is that all connections to other models or other models to the old test/dev are lost and needs to be redefined (edit mapping in source models).

It would be really handy that similar with promoting changes upwards in the DTAP street you would also be able to push data downstream the DTAP street. I can imagine this could only (technically) be possible if the models are on the same revision tag, however that is no problem at all.

[DavidSmith]

@Guido.kaandorp

This is one reason why I advocate separating Dev from Test. The Dev model should be the structural shell and the test can be copied from Prod with the latest data and sync'd with the latest changes. Test can then be deleted and re-copied as and when necessary without the need to copy Prod to be the new dev, or re-create any import links.

I would also think about having saved views in a data hub specifically for text data

David

[Guido.kaandorp]

@DavidSmith,

Thanks for your reply. We are separating Dev from Test of our most critical models. We have multiple test models connected to each other. Those needs to be manually re-linked to each other after making a new production copy.

[KBeltz]

@Guido.kaandorp

another thing you can do is to create admin actions that essentially copies all of your prod data to your development and test environments. Create the action in your dev environment and that action points at the model/module of your prod data. Create a process and with a simple button click, your data can be refreshed in any environment.

Depending on the data set, the PROD environment can experience some slowdowns while the action is running so be mindful to run this when your end user activity is low.

[ablack]

@DavidSmithWe frequently refresh our external (non-Anaplan) systems with production data back through all environments (Dev, QA, QB, Test). When that occurs, trying to execute an integration from a refreshed external dev environment to a stale Anaplan dev environment can cause failures, which can prevent us from promoting changes (whether those changes are in Anaplan or not).

This functionality would be extremely helpful, where data refreshes are common for external systems that interact with Anaplan.