Create and maintain a Solution Design Reference (SDR) Document create-and-maintain-a-solution-design-reference-document
The Solution Design Reference (SDR) document is the blueprint for business requirements and data collection design for Analytics on your digital properties. Learn how to create and maintain this document as the source of truth for your Analysis solution.
Transcript
Hey everybody, this is Doug. In this video I want to talk to you about building and maintaining an SDR, which is a Solution Design Reference document. You can all this whatever you want, it鈥檚 really a blueprint of your site and it follows the BRD, or the Business Requirements Document on the list of documentation that we should keep to really understand and be able to document and refer back to information on how our analytics is set up on our site. So here we have a document that is actually a combination of a BRD and SDR. Again, BRD being Business Requirements Document, SDR is a Solution Design. So if I talk about the BRD, I鈥檓 talking about actually defining what my business requirements are for tracking on my site. And when I talk about the SDR, I鈥檓 really talking about taking those requirements and making a blueprint of exactly which variables that data is going to go in, where we鈥檙e going to get the information from on our site, et cetera. So hopefully that gives a good distinction between the BRD and the SDR. Here we have a BRD, we have defined a few things here that we want to track on our site. This is for a very simple site. This would often be much larger for your site or it might not be, it depends on how many things you want to track and how many things you have on your site that you want to keep abreast of. So here is my simple little site, it is a GeoMetrixx Clothiers, it鈥檚 a little retail site. We can go in and we can buy some clothing, buy some jewelry, different things like that. Electronics, and we can also sign up for a credit card, we can sign up for newsletters, et cetera. But that鈥檚 just about the extent of it, we do have a search bar right up here as well which we鈥檒l track. But you can see that it鈥檚 a pretty basic site. And so, as we have taken that and mapped that over to some of the things that we want to track, we have listed those again here on our BRD. And as I mentioned in our BRD video, you don鈥檛 have to use this document, you can use any document that you want. It鈥檚 just important that you write down your business requirements and then you write down how they鈥檙e going to be tracked and how you鈥檙e going to meet those requirements. So this is a nice document to use, it can be a little more extensive that you might need, but I will put a link to this and you can download this and take a look at it if you want to. But I鈥檓 going to take a look at this and start right at the top and try to list out some of these things. We鈥檙e going to start on this business requirements document because we do have a few fields to kind of give an overview I suppose of the SDR, and I鈥檓 not going to worry about filling out every single one, you don鈥檛 have to. But whatever I think I鈥檒l need moving forward. I鈥檓 going to show you how to create this, but at the end of the day you need to maintain this document. Any new things you decide to track, any changes in your tracking all need to be here because if somebody comes in new, they鈥檙e going to need to know how everything is set up. So the first one鈥檚 pretty simple. We鈥檙e just going to track the pages on your site, and we can even put the reports populated here, it鈥檚 just going to be a pages report. This would typically maybe just hold the friendly name of the report or dimension that鈥檚 going to be populated by this. So are we going to use an eVar? Well normally we just would use the PageName prop, so we will put the PageName over here, PageName, and it鈥檚 kind of a pre-named traffic variable, and that鈥檚 why I鈥檓 putting it in this prop column, 'cause it鈥檚 a traffic variable. And I鈥檓 going to use an eVar as well, I do like to put the page name in an eVar, so I鈥檓 going to put this into eVar1.
Now I also do like to track a page view event. Out of the box you are going to get a page view metric, but I do like a page view event as well, because it鈥檚 pretty easy to use with some of the other reports like the eVar based reports. So I am going to also use an event, a custom event, and I鈥檒l go ahead and use event1.
So that鈥檚 something that I like to do. I mean we can put the implementation status if we want, but it鈥檚 not implemented yet, I鈥檓 not going to worry about that right now. But again, if you are tracking that, it鈥檚 a good thing to have as you go along, and some of these things are implemented and you can keep track of what is and what is not yet implemented. Okay, now before I move to site sections, I want to also track potentially where we鈥檙e going to get this data from from our pages. And so for that I鈥檓 going to go over to the variable map here, and so for everything on the requirements we should have it here as well. Again here鈥檚 the page name, and it鈥檚 actually down here on line 225. You can see we have list variables and we have some of the items above that like the eVars and the events and such. So in any case, we just want to find where we are tracking that and write it down. The next section here, maybe I鈥檒l type that in pages. And the next section is a tech spec section, so if you鈥檙e going to create a technical specification document for your developers so that you can follow along step by step, then that鈥檚 where this would go. I鈥檓 not going to talk about that right now, but again if you have that document and you like to fill it out, then this is a place where you can put the section of that. In fact, I鈥檓 going to just hide that column. So then you can talk about, they have listed here implementation scope and you鈥檝e got the data element and the data source, et cetera. But I鈥檓 going to just put in here for an implementation scope, and you鈥檒l see that I have a dropdown. I guess I should mention that there鈥檚 a config section here and you can put whatever you want here, and it kind of fills out the rest of the document and gives you some dropdowns and things. You don鈥檛 have to do this, seriously, you can just leave everything as a freeform text field. But this one that I grabbed here does have that. So as we go to the variable map, I do need to choose from the dropdown in this case for the implementation scope, and in this case we are going to use launch and we鈥檙e going to use a page load rule. And I do like the page load rule a little bit better than the extension configuration, and we鈥檒l go through that when we get to launch videos, but right now we鈥檙e going to set the page name in a page load rule. We鈥檙e going to do it off of a data element called page name in launch, and that鈥檚 going to be pulled from a data layer, so we鈥檒l go data layer and then if we want to see exactly where that鈥檚 going to be pulled from in the data layer, I can just jump back to my site, look at the source, and you鈥檒l see here that there is a data layer setup right here. digitalData data layer, if I can say that. And we have a pageName, so under the digitalData, then we have page, then we have pageName.
So we can kind of just go like this and we can go digitalData.page.pageName, or however that is setup, as a capital N, capital N.
So that鈥檚 how we鈥檒l set it up, and then you can decide what launch rule it鈥檚 going to be in our you can decide later, and come back and fill that out, et cetera. I鈥檓 not going to worry about that right now, but again, the main thing here is where am I pulling this pageName from? I want to know that here, how is it getting into that pageName variable? So we are going to use a data element in launch, which is basically a launch variable, we鈥檒l go over that in the launch videos, but we鈥檙e going to pull it from the data layer on the page and put it into the pageName variable. If you don鈥檛 have a data layer, I would recommend considering creating one, or if you have other variables on the page where you have this information, then you can just of course use those or you can use the title tag or whatever you want to use you can see here. Whatever you want to use for that you can use of course, you just want to document that. That鈥檚 the first one, and I鈥檓 probably not going to go through every one of these, but let鈥檚 do a couple of more. So now we鈥檝e got the page sections, so this is going to be in the site sections report, and I鈥檓 going to put this in an eVar as well, I like to put everything in an eVar. So I鈥檓 going to use eVar2, not going to use any event on that because that鈥檚 just going to be event1 again, so maybe I can even put event1 in parenthesis because it will track those pages of the site sections as well. And then I鈥檓 going to use the channel variable, okay this is also a pre-named traffic variable, so I鈥檓 going to use that channel variable and if we click back to our variable map, we鈥檒l see that channel is right there and again, the channel variable turns into the site sections report so we can put site sections here. And then once again this is going to be on that same page load rule.
I鈥檓 going to call it out of a channel, data element, and this is going to be also in the data layer, in fact I can probably just copy that down and then change it, and you鈥檒l see if I go back to my data layer that it鈥檚 going to be the site section of the data layer, so I鈥檒l just copy that and I鈥檒l put that here.
So maybe it makes sense actually to create the data element called site section.
Okay, and you can decide this as you go along and then lock that blueprint in and then go ahead and do the implementation after that. So this is where we鈥檙e getting it from, you鈥檒l see that I didn鈥檛 have one on the home page 'cause it鈥檚 not really a section, I guess I could put a home section, but if I close that and I go to, for example, one of the pages in the women鈥檚 section and then look at the source, that has a siteSection there of women鈥檚 section. So again if I do digitalData page siteSection and grab that out of the data layer and put that into a data element, then that will be able to fill in my site section鈥檚 report. Okay, so let鈥檚 do a couple more of these.
Really not going to worry about this section anymore, this what is the name of the reports section. I鈥檓 just going to leave that for now but you can fill it out later. But I鈥檓 going to of course select which variables I鈥檓 going to use here, so for search I鈥檓 just going to use an eVar and we鈥檒l just keep going up. We鈥檙e going to go eVar3 on search. And I am going to use an event, I鈥檓 going to use the event2, sure. It doesn鈥檛 really matter which number you use, just so long as you identify it in the blueprint. So this is going to be when there鈥檚 a search done, and the evar3 is going to be what they searched for, okay? So when they search I鈥檓 going to put the search term in here, so I鈥檒l put track internal search term right there.
And so we have the search term, and we will have the counter of how many times they search. I don鈥檛 really need that in a prop, so I鈥檓 going to leave that alone, but we鈥檒l go over to our variable map. Now I did put pages and cite sections in the props. What I didn鈥檛 do was put those in that eVar, 'cause I had said we鈥檙e going to do an eVar as well. So if I jump up to the eVars, and then we鈥檙e going to use here, we鈥檙e going to go to the data element again, this was the page name. And you can copy that stuff up, I鈥檒l just do this, this was the site section and for eVar3, we鈥檙e going to use the search terms.
And I鈥檒l just copy this, and over here it鈥檚 going to be the page name and the site section reports there and search terms. And I will be setting that in a page load rule as well. Now where I鈥檓 going to get that one is not actually out of a data layer, but if I jump back up to the site then you鈥檒l see I have my search bar up here, when I search for something like coat.
I鈥檒l say go, you鈥檒l see that it鈥檚 right up here in the query string, so I can pull that out of the query string, the search term, and that鈥檚 what I鈥檓 going to say here. So I鈥檓 going to say this will be pulled out of the query string param Q, okay? So you鈥檒l be documenting all of this, and I鈥檓 not going to do any more, you don鈥檛 need to watch probably any more of this video of me doing that, but I just want to point out where things are coming from. You鈥檒l want to fill all these things in so that again this is page load rule, page load rule. And where are you getting the data? Where is it going? What variables is it going in? We鈥檙e going to want to set those events which I haven鈥檛 done either, so if I go all the way to the top, we decided the event1 was going to be a page view event. And if I remember right, the next event we were going to use was just that search. So let met double check, event2 for the search term. So yeah, we鈥檒l just say search happened, right? So you鈥檙e going to want to fill those in and as you decide on how those requirements are going to be filled or fulfilled, then you鈥檒l want to go over and set them in the variable map and again add how they are going to be pulled. And so you can see the ones that I had left here are the shopping cart ones. And so in that case we鈥檒l just look at those pages and pull values out of the data layer again based on which product they鈥檙e looking at or putting in their cart or purchasing and we鈥檒l have price there and everything. So a lot of data hopefully will come out of a data layer or out of other variables on your page and then you can set them into those things. Remember, the shopping cart has some additional pre-named variables, so you鈥檙e not going to use eVars for those very much as far as the variable for those things, you鈥檙e going to use the product variable. And that鈥檚 going to be for all three of those, like I said, I鈥檒l fill this in for you. And then the events are pre-named as well where this is a prodView, this one is an scAdd for shopping cart add, and then the purchase is the purchase event. Okay, so those are the pre-named ones for retail. Everything else, like for example tracking credit card applications, we鈥檙e going to use in this one, event3 and event4 because we have a process. And I鈥檒l just show you over here, go back to the home page, when you actually click to the page either by going company, Geo charge card or even just clicking here. It takes you to the beginning of this process at which point I鈥檓 going to set event3. Then if they continue and fill out their stuff, and click proceed to apply, then I鈥檓 going to trigger event4, so that I can have an event at the beginning and at the end of a process so that I can see the percentage of people that finished it from the people that started. Now one more thing, and that is that since this actually goes to a third party site, I鈥檓 going to actually track the click of this button instead of a page load. So on my page here if I go to my variable map for event4, I鈥檒l look at how it鈥檚 going to be tracked, this is going to be tracked on the different other rule type here. And if I look at the data source, it鈥檚 going to be click on the proceed button on the credit card page. So make sure that you decide how you鈥檙e going to track this, how you鈥檙e going to know that they did the thing. In many cases you鈥檙e going to be able to know that they did the thing because a page came up. But when I click on this, if it goes to another site, I need to track the click before they leave the site. So anyway, those are some tips. Again with the SDR, highly recommend that you record everything about your implementation and it doesn鈥檛 have to be on this kind of a spreadsheet but it does need to be done. Good luck.
Download a sample Excel template to document requirements, variables usage and assignment, segments, and data collection design for your digital properties.
Watch the related video to learn how to create a business requirements document video.
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