Plan
Plan the whole project before building
Each phase ends with a client sign-off. Nothing moves to the next phase until its gate is passed.
Gate to pass: RFP response; sponsor and team named
screenshots/phases/step-1-1.png| Tool | 1. Initiation (RFP / kickoff) |
|---|---|
| AEP | Confirm licences, sponsor, sandbox count, sources in scope |
| Adobe Analytics | Report suites, current implementation, stakeholders |
| Launch (Tags) | Sites and apps in scope, current tag manager, CMP |
| Marketo | Instance, CRM, partitions, package |
| RTCDP | Confirm edition (B2C/B2B/B2P) and package; destinations licensed |
| AEM | Cloud Service vs. managed, sites, languages |
| Target | Edition, sites, testing goals |
| AJO | Package, channels, IPs, sandbox |
| CJA | Licensed data volume, stakeholders, questions |
A client document describing need, scope and evaluation criteria. A response covers understanding of the problem, approach, team, timeline, assumptions and cost.
Sponsor, decision makers, licences and packages, sandboxes, systems in scope, success criteria and the communication cadence.
They decide which features, data volumes and destinations are available, so scoping without them leads to promises the product cannot keep.
Gate to pass: Current State Assessment; Future State Blueprint — Discovery sign-off
screenshots/phases/step-2-1.png
screenshots/phases/step-2-2.png| Tool | 2. Discovery (current & future state) |
|---|---|
| AEP | Audit sources, identifiers, consent, data quality; draw future-state data flow |
| Adobe Analytics | Current SDR audit, KPI inventory |
| Launch (Tags) | Tag audit, data layer gaps, page-speed baseline |
| Marketo | MAP/CRM audit, lifecycle, database health |
| RTCDP | Current audiences (DMP/AAM), destinations, consent rules by region |
| AEM | Content audit, current CMS, integrations |
| Target | Current implementation, past tests, traffic levels |
| AJO | Existing ESP and journeys, deliverability, consent sources, event availability |
| CJA | Available datasets, identity coverage, Analytics usage |
| Domain | Profile | Compliance focus |
|---|---|---|
| Travel & Airlines | B2C, seasonal, multi-currency/locale | GDPR (EU travelers), loyalty program data, real-time pricing/inventory sensitivity |
| E-commerce & Retail | B2C, high volume | PCI-DSS (payment data), GDPR/CCPA, cookie consent, high-cardinality product catalogs |
| Healthcare | B2C (patients) + B2B (providers, payers) | HIPAA, HITRUST, consent-first data collection, no PHI in standard analytics tools without a BAA-covered environment |
| BFSI | B2C + B2B | PCI-DSS, SOX, GLBA, strict PII handling, fraud/KYC constraints on data sharing |
| Media & Telecom | B2C subscription + B2B advertising | Consent for ad personalization, churn-sensitive data models, high-volume streaming events |
| Manufacturing / B2B | B2B, long sales cycles | Account-based data models, CRM/ERP integration depth, smaller but higher-value data volumes |
An audit of existing tools, tags, data flows, identities, consent and pain points, with evidence such as Debugger captures and data samples.
The target architecture: how data will flow from touchpoints through collection, AEP and applications to activation, plus a capability roadmap.
You confirm what data is allowed (PHI, KYC), required agreements such as a BAA, and access controls before designing anything.
Gate to pass: SOW signed: scope, deliverables, timeline, price
screenshots/phases/step-3-1.png| Tool | 3. SOW & plan |
|---|---|
| AEP | Scope sources, schemas, Wave 1 use cases; check volumes vs. licence |
| Adobe Analytics | Variables, suites, dashboards |
| Launch (Tags) | Templates, extensions, migration scope |
| Marketo | Programs, scoring, CRM sync scope |
| RTCDP | Audience count, destinations, governance scope |
| AEM | Templates, components, migration volume |
| Target | Implementation plus first activities |
| AJO | Wave 1 journeys, channels, templates |
| CJA | Connections, data views, projects |
Clear scope and out-of-scope, deliverables tied to milestones, assumptions, client responsibilities, timeline, team and price.
Count sources, schemas, use cases, destinations and environments, apply effort per item from past projects, then add QA, hypercare and contingency.
Log it, assess impact on time and cost, and handle it through a change request rather than absorbing it silently.
Gate to pass: SDR + SDD — Design sign-off
screenshots/phases/step-4-1.png
screenshots/phases/step-4-2.png| Tool | 4. Design (SDR / SDD) |
|---|---|
| AEP | SDR: schemas, field groups, namespaces, datasets, mapping. SDD: data flow, sandboxes, governance |
| Adobe Analytics | SDR, suite settings, classification plan |
| Launch (Tags) | Data layer spec, rule and data-element design, naming, consent matrix |
| Marketo | Lifecycle and scoring model, field mapping, program templates |
| RTCDP | Merge policies, audience catalog, destination matrix, labels and policies |
| AEM | IA, component catalog, fragment models; SDD for environments, CDN, integrations |
| Target | Roadmap, audiences, A4T, properties/workspaces |
| AJO | Journey designs, event specs, channel configs, rule sets, consent model |
| CJA | Connection and data view spec, stitching, derived fields |
Customer touchpoints
Collection & content
Experience Platform foundation
Applications
Activation & insight
All tools in dependency order. "Depends on" lists the row numbers that must be finished first.
| # | Tool | Configuration | Depends on | Output | Phase |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Admin Console / AEP | Product profiles and roles; Dev and Prod sandboxes | — | Users can work in the right sandbox | Build |
| 2 | AEP | Identity namespaces (email, phone, CRM ID, loyalty ID, ECID, account ID) | 1 | Namespace list in SDR | Build |
| 3 | AEP | Schemas and field groups for profiles, events and accounts | 2 | Published schemas | Build |
| 4 | AEP | Datasets with Profile toggle and retention | 3 | Datasets ready for ingestion | Build |
| 5 | Data Collection | Datastreams per environment with AEP, Analytics and Target services | 3, 4 | Datastream IDs | Build |
| 6 | Adobe Analytics | Report suites, props, eVars, events, bot rules | — (parallel) | Report suite IDs for the datastream | Build |
| 7 | Tags | Property, Web SDK extension, data elements, rules, consent | 5 | Events reaching AEP and Analytics | Build |
| 8 | AEP | Batch and streaming sources with Data Prep mapping (CRM, POS, warehouse) | 4 | Dataflows running | Build |
| 9 | Marketo | Admin, email authentication, Munchkin via Tags, CRM sync | 7 | Marketo database synced with CRM | Build |
| 10 | AEP | Marketo source connector into AEP | 3, 9 | Leads and activities in AEP | Build |
| 11 | AEP | Ingestion validation with Query Service (counts, nulls, duplicates) | 7, 8, 10 | Validation report | QA |
| 12 | AEP / RTCDP | Identity graph checks; merge policies | 11 | Trusted unified profiles | Build |
| 13 | AEP | Data usage labels and governance policies | 3 | Policies enforced on activation | Build |
| 14 | RTCDP | Audiences and evaluation methods | 12, 13 | Audience library | Build |
| 15 | RTCDP | Destinations and activation (ads, Marketo, Target, CRM) | 14 | Audiences flowing to channels | Build |
| 16 | AEM | Program, pipelines, templates, components, fragments, DAM, workflows | — (parallel from start) | Site ready for content | Build |
| 17 | AEM / Tags | Tags configured on AEM via Cloud Services | 7, 16 | Tracking on every AEM page | Build |
| 18 | Target | Target service in datastream; properties; A4T; first activities | 5, 14 | Tests and personalization live | Build |
| 19 | AJO | Subdomains, IP pools, channel configurations, rule sets | 1 | Channels ready to send | Build |
| 20 | AJO | Unitary and business events; data sources; custom actions | 5, 8 | Triggers available in journeys | Build |
| 21 | AJO | Templates, decisioning, journeys | 14, 20 | Journeys ready for test | Build |
| 22 | CJA | Connection (web, CRM, AJO step events, Analytics data); data views; projects | 11, 21 | Cross-channel reporting | Build |
| 23 | All tools | End-to-end test: one synthetic person from web visit → profile → audience → journey → report | 1–22 | End-to-end test log | QA / UAT |
| 24 | All tools | Go-live in waves; hypercare monitoring across dataflows, activations, journeys, tags | 23 | Go-Live and Hypercare Exit sign-offs | Go-live & hypercare |
| 25 | All tools | Handoff: runbooks, SDR/SDD final versions, access list, training, backlog | 24 | Closure and handoff pack | Closure |
| Tool | Objects |
|---|---|
| AEP | Sandbox Dev and Prod; product profiles and roles → Identity namespaces Display name, code, type (cross-device / device) → Schemas Class (Profile / Event), standard field groups, _tenant custom fields → Identity fields Namespace per field; one primary; Profile toggle on schema → Datasets From schema; Profile toggle; retention → Sources Connector, auth, dataflow schedule (batch / streaming) → Data Prep mapping Source → XDM; calculated fields for format fixes → Profile & merge Default merge policy; identity graph checks → Query Service Validation SQL; CTAS derived datasets → Governance Data usage labels; policies on marketing actions → Monitoring Dataflow alerts; ingestion dashboards |
| RTCDP | Merge policies Stitching type; timestamp or dataset precedence; default → Audiences Audience Builder rules, time constraints → Evaluation Batch, streaming or edge per audience → Labels & policies Marketing actions mapped to policies → Destination connection Catalog card, auth, marketing actions → Activation dataflow Audiences, schedule, identity + attribute mapping → Monitoring Dataflow runs, match rates, failures |
| Tags + Web SDK | Datastream Event schema; services: AEP dataset, Analytics RSID, Target; ID settings → Tag property Domains; Dev / Stage / Prod environments → Web SDK extension Datastream per environment; consent default; ECID → Data elements Data layer readers; XDM object / variable → Rules Event + conditions + Send event action → Consent CMP → setConsent; rule categories gated → Library & publish Build Dev → approve Stage → publish Prod → Embed code Environment-specific script on each site → Validate Debugger, Assurance, dataset preview |
| Adobe Analytics | Report suite RSID, time zone, currency, go-live → Props & eVars Names, allocation, expiration → Success events Counter / currency / numeric; serialization → Bot & IP rules IAB filter; internal IP exclusion → Data collection Datastream Analytics service or extension; XDM → variables → Processing rules Server-side copy / set / clean → Classifications Classification sets for codes → Components Segments, calculated metrics → Workspace Projects, scheduled reports → Data Feeds Hit-level export to warehouse |
| AJO | Subdomain delegation DNS delegation; SPF, DKIM, DMARC → IP pools & warm-up Pools per message type; warm-up plan → Channel configurations Marketing vs. transactional; sender; tracking → Events Unitary (identity) or business; schema; event ID condition → Data sources & custom actions External APIs, auth, payloads → Business rule sets Channel caps, quiet hours, journey entry caps → Templates & fragments Personalization tokens with fallbacks → Decisioning Items, eligibility rules, selection strategies → Journeys Entry, conditions, waits, actions, exit, re-entry → Test & dry run Test profiles, proofs, dry run → Publish & report Live report; journey_step_events |
| CJA | Connection Sandbox, datasets, person/account ID, backfill → Lookup & profile data Keys matched to event datasets → Stitching Field-based stitching where needed → Data view Containers, session timeout, time zone → Components Dimensions, metrics, derived fields, attribution → Filters & metrics Reusable filters, calculated metrics → Workspace Projects, flow, fallout, cohort → Audiences Publish to Real-Time CDP → Access Product profiles per data view |
| Target | Implementation Datastream Target service (Web SDK) or at.js; pre-hiding snippet → Properties & workspaces Enterprise permissions → Analytics for Target A4T reporting source → Audiences Target rules or RTCDP audiences → Activity A/B, XT, MVT, AP; URL or location → Experiences VEC or form-based composer → Targeting & goals Allocation; primary metric → QA links Every experience, every device → Activate & report Split check; significance |
| AEM | Cloud Manager program Program and roles → Environments Author, Publish, Preview; Dev / Stage / Prod → Repo & pipelines Git; quality gates; deploy → Project code Archetype; Core Component proxies; client libraries → Dispatcher & CDN Cache rules, filters, redirects → Templates & policies Editable templates; allowed components → Content Fragment Models Models; GraphQL endpoints for headless → Assets Processing profiles; metadata schemas → Workflows & permissions Approval models; groups → Cloud Services Tags, Target, Analytics configs → Publish & monitor Replication, logs, uptime |
| Marketo | Users & workspaces Roles; workspaces and partitions → Email authentication SPF, DKIM, DMARC; branding CNAME → Munchkin Tracking code via Tags → CRM sync Sync user, Sync Fields, start sync → Field management Custom fields; mapping → Smart lists & segmentations Core lists; dynamic content segments → Program setup Channels, tags, period costs → Scoring & lifecycle Change Score campaigns; stage transitions → Templates, pages, forms Progressive profiling → Engagement programs Streams, cadence, transitions → Reporting & AEP Program reports; AEP source / destination |
The SDR maps business requirements to technical configuration (variables, schemas, fields); the SDD describes the technical design: architecture, data flows, environments, integrations and naming.
The client sponsor and technical owners. Sign-off freezes scope for the build, so later changes go through change control.
Loyalty ID as the main person ID, plus email, phone and ECID; booking references stay as fields, and agents' shared emails are excluded from stitching.