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Honeywick Consulting

Scenarios

A scenario is a self-contained, simulated day of operation: an area of the map, a fleet of resources on shift, a book of work, and a script of timed injections (new incidents, resource problems, surges) that fire as the clock runs. Scenarios run against the real optimiser — everything you see (allocation, re-planning, outsourcing) is live Spiral behaviour, just at accelerated time — which makes them the standard way to demonstrate Helix, train operators, and rehearse operational situations without touching production data.

(For the dispatch screen itself see the Introduction; the Metrics panel is scenario-aware and opens automatically when one starts.)

Starting a scenario

Section titled “Starting a scenario”

From the landing screen, choose the scenarios option and pick a card from the list — each shows its name and a short description of the story it plays out. Loading a scenario resets the current data, builds the scenario’s world, and starts the clock at the scenario’s speed factor (typically 10× real time).

While a scenario is running, the scenario HUD shows the simulated clock, the current speed, and a countdown to the next event; the speed can be changed mid-run, and a scenario can be cancelled at any time without reloading the application.

Custom scenarios — the self-config wizard

Section titled “Custom scenarios — the self-config wizard”

Alongside the pre-built cards, the custom scenario wizard builds a scenario to order. You choose:

  • the area the scenario plays out in, and the start time of the simulated day,
  • how many resources of each type are on shift,
  • the project mix — how much and what kind of work arrives,
  • optional archetypes — pre-configured situation templates layered on top,
  • the metric thresholds the Metrics panel should judge the run against (SLA and backlog RAG cut-offs).

The wizard generates locations that respect each stop type’s helix.locationType rules, so the built world matches how the domain authors real work.

Injections and the event log

Section titled “Injections and the event log”

Scenario scripts inject events at set simulated times — a new breakdown, a resource going unavailable, a surge of demand. Each injection is announced in the Event Log panel (top-right of the map; drag its header to reposition it), newest first, together with detected reactions — the optimiser’s visible responses, such as a re-allocation or an outsource decision. Expanding an entry shows its full description and commentary. Injections also appear as dashed markers on the Metrics time-series charts, so cause and effect line up.

Run files

Section titled “Run files”

A run file is a recorded input stream (.run.json) rather than a scripted scenario: loading one replays it through the optimiser exactly as it originally arrived, with the application read-only while it loads. Run files are the tool for reproducing a recorded situation — a support case, a regression, a demonstration of a specific day — and are listed from the landing screen’s run-file picker, organised by folder.

Section titled “Related”