What it is.
You create a Tracking Plan and list the events and properties you intend to collect, with the type and description of each. Segment can populate it from what your source already received in the last 24 hours, 7 days or 30 days, so you start from reality instead of a blank page.
Once the plan exists, incoming data gets checked against it and anything that doesn't match is reported as a violation. That is how you find out somebody released Signup Completed when the plan says Signed Up.
Plans upload and download as CSV, so the spec can live in version control and get reviewed like code.
What you get.
- One agreed list of event names and properties, with descriptions.
- A starting plan generated from events your source already received.
- Violations reported when live data doesn't match the spec.
- CSV upload and download, so the plan can sit in version control.
- A reference that makes an analytics handover possible.
How to set it up.
Generate a first draft from the events your source received in the last 30 days, so the plan reflects the product.
Delete the events nobody uses before you standardize anything, because half of them will be legacy.
Agree one naming convention and write it into the plan's descriptions.
Add the properties each event must carry, since a correctly named event with missing properties is still useless.
Download the plan as CSV and put it in your repository, so changes get reviewed.
Watch violations weekly, and treat a new violation as a bug and not as a data quirk.
Use cases
Agree the event names once
Write the list with descriptions before anyone instruments anything.
Start from what you already send
Generate the first draft from the events your sources emit today.
Catch a bad event early
Compare incoming events against the plan and reject what does not match.
Best for
Analytics nobody trusts
Four events meaning the same thing is the usual reason a dashboard gets ignored.
Before a warehouse build
Bad event names cost far more once they're in SQL that other people depend on.
Handing analytics to a new owner
A plan is the only version of this handover that survives.