Definition
Tracking Plan
A tracking plan is a versioned document - usually a spreadsheet or a data-management entry - that defines every event a product tracks: name, trigger, properties with types and allowed values, owner, and the question it exists to answer. It is the contract between the people who ask product questions and the engineers who instrument the answers.
Interactive diagram - hover the elements. Plotted values are illustrative examples, not measurements.
What belongs in each tracking plan row?
Event name in one enforced convention; the exact trigger ('fires when the server confirms signup', not 'when the user signs up'); each property with type and example values; platforms it fires on; the owner; and the analysis it serves. Rows without an owning question are candidates for deletion - volume without purpose is what event-based pricing charges you for.
Why do tracking plans fail?
They fail socially, not technically: created once for a launch, never versioned, bypassed the first time a deadline squeezes. The fixes are process fixes - the plan lives where engineers work, instrumentation PRs link to plan rows, and drift is checked automatically. Tools help; ownership decides.
In practice: Our free tracking plan template is the exact format we hand to clients in implementation sprints.
Tracking Plan: common questions
Tracking plan vs event taxonomy - what's the difference?+
The taxonomy is the naming and structure system (conventions, categories, casing); the tracking plan is the full inventory that applies it, event by event, with triggers and owners. Taxonomy is grammar; the tracking plan is the dictionary.
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