Learn how to organize and manage Adobe Analytics and Customer Journey Analytics components with best practices for naming, descriptions, tags, ownership, approval, and sharing. Discover how to use tools like the Data Dictionary and External IDs to streamline workflows, improve reporting consistency, and build confidence in data-driven decision-making.

When I began my journey into Adobe Analytics, the most difficult thing for me was finding the components I needed to pull into Workspace and get the view I was looking for. As in most implementations of Adobe Analytics, there were numerous components available to me as a new user that I was unfamiliar with. Given enough time, with debugging and trial and error, I was eventually able to get a good understanding of what I was looking at and start to build some cohesive reports. I don’t honestly know what was available then, but now there are many different tools available to make it much easier for users to find, understand, use, and share components and Workspaces. In this article, I explain how I use these tools to make a cleaner environment for Analysts to work in. Fortunately, this is one thing that is the same whether the user is in Adobe Analytics or Customer Journey Analytics.

Creating a strong foundation for components

The only requirement when creating a new component is a name. Personally, I have made hundreds of components, especially calculated metrics and segments/filters, with only a name. While this can be fine for unplanned reporting or investigation, it really isn't a good practice for components that others in your organization may use. Anything shared should include at least a descriptive name, a filled-in description, and one or more tags. An admin or the data-owning team should approve anything shared broadly or with new users. Approved components all have a small checkmark icon next to them to identify them as approved. Following these simple rules could save you and your organization hours of confusion and rework.

Building a sustainable and organized Adobe Workspace

While my aforementioned minimum for a component is a name, a description, and a tag, there are many other aspects involved with keeping an organized Workspace. I believe that aside from having as many of the available fields filled out as possible, it is best to have a documented process to review and maintain these components. Below, I go into the most important aspects of keeping your Adobe environment organized. I won't dive into too much detail about specific tasks, as Adobe already provides extensive documentation. This article is intended to be a best practice rather than a how-to guide.

Naming best practices for components

When I go about naming a new component, I try to be as descriptive as possible, especially when it comes to calculated metrics and segments/filters. Users often prefer shorter names, but these can be confusing when the component is complex. So, while a name like "CTA Clicks" is nice, "Call to Action Clicks from Fall Promo Page" is also perfectly acceptable.

To take it a step further, I like to add in some more detail to names when applicable. That is, I like to add in what platform the component is examining, as well as the level of persistence. With that in mind, 'Call to Action Clicks from Fall Promo Page' becomes 'Call to Action Clicks from Fall Promo Page [App & Web | Event]' to show it includes app and web traffic at the event level. My go-to naming convention is as follows: "DescriptiveName [Platform | Persistence]." Of course, every implementation of Adobe Analytics is different, and these extra parts don’t always need to be added, but I find the extra detail helpful more often than not.

Writing clear and useful component descriptions

This one is rather self-explanatory. The hardest part here is just getting it done. Often, as I am in the midst of building a report or investigating a hunch, I don’t take the time to put in a good description. Often, by the time I backfill a description, I’ve lost track of the component’s purpose and settings, forcing me to retrace my steps.

A good description explains what the component is, how it works, its dataset (especially for offline CJA data), and an example use case. With all of this included, it is easy for other users to read and understand what the intended purpose of the component is and how to read the results. Hopefully, users will also be able to reuse my component in their own analysis.

Assigning ownership for better consistency

We have all seen that calculated metrics and segments/filters have the owner listed. Generally, this is the person who created the component. I find it more advantageous to assign all components to a person or team that is responsible for the data that the component was created to represent. For example, if I'm looking at an Internal Search Findability component, I would want that assigned to an analyst who works for the Internal Search team. Following that same logic, I would have all the checkout components assigned to the checkout team, login and account components assigned to the Accounts team, and so on. The purpose of this is simple: consistency. Assigning ownership this way ensures consistent calculations and that the team closest to the data sets the methodology.

In both Adobe Analytics and Customer Journey Analytics, an admin has the ability to reassign assets to other users. I use this to ensure that all applicable assets are assigned to someone on the correct team. This tool obviously does not work on conversion metrics and dimensions, so I also keep a record of ownership in a shared spreadsheet.

This may seem like a lot, but this method does contribute to better reporting continuity and cuts down on unnecessary questions and confusion.

Using tags to organize components

I can't stress enough how fantastic tags are. After years of neglecting them, I found that organizing assets with tags is a huge time-saver in complex environments. Tags make it easy to track ownership and categorize assets by team, dataset, persistence, complexity, or other criteria. Since there seems to be no limit, don't be shy about categorizing, but do keep it simple. I stick to single words or abbreviations (like cart, checkout, ids, nps). My only other guideline is all lowercase. This keeps your tags distinct from Adobe's uppercase tags and makes them quicker to search using the # symbol in the Workspace search bar (for example, #checkout).

Approving components to build confidence and trust

As mentioned earlier, an admin can "Approve" components in Workspace, which adds a checkmark next to the name. “An admin can approve a component from the dropdown menu at the top of Workspace or by right-clicking it and selecting 'Approve.' I use this feature as a signal to users that the component has been vetted and validated as accurate. Only a component that has a descriptive name, description, and at least one tag can be approved. Additionally, the team that originates the data should review the component. Much like in the ownership section, this is to ensure better reporting continuity. Ideally, a new user sees primarily approved components in their Workspaces, which should help them build confidence in their reports as they get used to the tool. Not all components need approval, but those shared broadly should be approved so users can trust the data.

Sharing Workspaces and components securely

The ability to share Workspaces and collaborate is one of the things that makes Adobe Analytics and Customer Journey Analytics so powerful. While it is also possible to share individual components with other users, this can sometimes be tedious when sharing with multiple users, so I always recommend setting up User Groups in the Admin Console. Setting up these groups allows users to share with everyone included in a specific group with a single click rather than selecting each user individually.
As always with sharing, it is important to be cognizant of who and how you are sharing. Adobe gives you the option to share different levels of access to reports, from view only to edit the original. If you allow a whole group to edit your original Workspace, there is a greater risk of changes and errors happening.

As an additional note, a user can "Share with anyone," which creates a view-only copy that anyone with the link, inside or outside your organization, can view. This feature is useful with third-party partners, but it risks exposing your data. Luckily, a user can go into the share screen and deactivate a link that has been shared out to help prevent any data exposure.

Managing external IDs in Customer Journey Analytics

Editable External IDs are the only item here that is unique to Customer Journey Analytics. When you connect CJA to an external report such as Power BI, that system uses this ID as a unique identifier. In Adobe Analytics, each component gets a long, unreadable string, making edits tricky to match. With CJA's ability to define these yourself, making updates and edits to external reporting becomes much easier.
The restrictions on these IDs from Adobe are that they cannot have spaces or special characters and must be unique. I tend to mimic the name of the component here, but use capital letters instead of spaces. With this method, “Call to Action Clicks from Fall Promo Page" becomes "CallToActionClicksFromFallPromoPage."

Leveraging the Data Dictionary for component management

Adobe has made some huge strides in helping with Component Management, especially when it comes to the Data Dictionary. This section, nested right in Workspace, acts as an invaluable resource for users and admins to help understand and manage their assets. This tool highlights what components are commonly used together in your organization, as well as other components that are similar to the one selected.
As an admin, I use this tool to find duplicate components and see if any haven’t received recent data. Nearly all the aspects of a component (Name, Description, etc.) can be updated by an admin in the Data Dictionary. This makes it a great one-stop shop for admins, especially if, like me, you tend to make edits on the go.

Maintaining an organized environment

Above all else, it’s important to have a defined process to maintain consistency across your organization and to regularly review your components. Keeping everything updated and accurate takes ongoing effort, and it’s best to involve the assigned component owners in that process to ensure accuracy. In the long run, actively managing your assets will save you and your organization significant time, reduce confusion, and prevent unnecessary rework.