Sample Data vs. Real Data

Overview

The purpose of this Help topic is to convey the need for receiving “real” production data to build and test your Engage+ solution, as opposed to sample or "mock" data.

The Cheetah Digital onboarding team needs to be able to verify data types and data values that will be used in production. This information will be used for data mapping, joins, filters, audience selection, content personalization, campaigns, reports, and exports during the build and testing phase. If the onboarding team has access to your real data at the beginning of the onboarding process, they can be more productive in asking questions that relate to your solution, which in turn allows for a better solution. The onboarding team will automate the receipt and processing of the data, with the expectation that this data will be the same as what was used to build and test with.

If real data is not available, then you can use sample data, but you should note the following conditions associated with using sample data, each of which can impact the deliverability date and potentially also the cost:

Sample data can't cover the same scenarios as your real data.
Your system will need to be retested and validated once real data is available. Additional time and resources will be required to retest the solution with the real data.
Rework may be required to account for changes in the real data.

Requirements

The real production data should be received at the beginning of the Onboarding process. One of the first steps in this process is to fill out the discovery workbooks for importing data. When the Data Import Workbook is finished, you should be prepared at this time to send the real data that will be used for testing purposes.

You should send about a 10% sample of your real data. The number of records can be more or less than 10% depending on how many records are in the full production file. A larger sample of the full production file can be sent if the overall size is small. If sending multiple files, then referential integrity should be maintained across the files.

For email clients, our Deliverability Team will use a random 10,000 record sample of the data provided to perform a hygiene check through Cheetah Digital’s Data Quality (EDQ) group. EDQ will provide a detailed report on this record sample, identifying any issues that could result in deliverability issues. Our Deliverability Team will review the results with you and provide any needed recommendations.

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