New Piwik Certification program

[mattab]

The goal of this issue is to discuss and brainstorm how to create a Certification for Piwik to certify staff on Piwik software platform and general Analytics mindset.

Certification topics

• installing Piwik,
• setup tracking,
• track custom variables,
• site search,
• setup goals,
• learn to use the UI,
• what to do if traffic loss,
• etc.

Proposed steps

• Prepare material for users to learn Piwik, provide better guides, PDF containing all Piwik User Guides #5315
• Think of the most common 20 steps piwik users go through in the first 6 months of use
• Map them out as question and answers
• link to the documentation page when applicable
• If missing docs, let's add them, write them now. An example such doc: Google analytics blog guides.

Later steps

• There is an opportunity to create and translate from / to several languages. For example in French or German there would be need of such certification and maybe Piwik users willing to help
• Opportunity to run the Certification via a professional system such as the one used by Symfony to run the certification in 4,000+ centers around the world! See their FAQ page on pearsonvue.
• Pick a fair price for the certification. Ideally just enough to cover the certification costs from provider eg. pearsonvue. Does anyone know the costs? Ideally, Piwik Certification will be $50 or so.
• For people passing the tests successfully, we want to give recognition!
  • support Open Badges a new online standard to recognize and verify learning
  • user can display on their website this badge, which links to a subdomain at Piwik, maybe certified.piwik.org - It would be a page with a brief bio, location and a link to certified user' site.

Inspirations

• Google Analytics Certification
• Symfony certification
• Puppet certification
• DAA Cert Test

The DAA Cert Test is a true certification, meaning it tests your ability to do the job over a wide set of circumstances, rather than what you can remember from courses and books. [...] many analysts tend to specialize or be more familiar with certain areas than others, so may want to seek out education in those less familiar areas prior to taking the test. A good way to determine if this might be true for you is to download the Knowledge Required for Certification document here: http://www.digitalanalyticsassociation.org/?page=knowledge_required and review the topics to see if there are any areas you might want to brush up on. Then you can decide which, if any, courses you might want to take or books you might want to read, etc. to prep for test. Jim Novo

[NanorPiwik]

Hi,

https://analyticsacademy.withgoogle.com/ is also a great source of inspiration. They offer free online video tutorial with exam questions. If you access the website at some specific dates you can even get a certification for free if you get at least 80%.

The main drawback of those exams are that people are copying and pasting the questions and passing the exams without being competent on those solutions. The best way I found so far is the following one: having a huge database of questions and pick them randomly at each exam+adding a practical exam with open ended questions. The person in charge of reviewing the open ended questions will be a Piwik representative, each part is worth 50% of the final grade. A 80% grade success is necessary in order to get the certification. I think 50$ is a reasonable price and could cover the expense of for the reviewer of the open-ended questions.

I am available in order to contribute to writing the questions and provide help for writing the practical exam.

[mattab]

@NanorPiwik interesting ideas. I guess we could start small with one set of questions and plan to increase it over time - or alternatively create directly a few hundreds of questions?

I stumbled upon the Linuxfundation certification done online as well: http://training.linuxfoundation.org/certification (the video is nicely done).

anyone interested in this topic or can volunteer your help, feel free to comment

[NanorPiwik]

Hi Matt,

I had the chance of finding some time to work on the Piwik certification this week. I am at about 75 questions. But actually it is tough to keep continuing writing questions without knowing what may be the right topics to write about. So I finally invest my time in writing what are the top 20 steps any Piwik users should think at during their first 6 months. Sorry I cannot "prepare material for Piwik users" it is too time intensive, we need to divide this task into different slots. I wrote 15 steps instead of 20, but some could be split I think. Those steps can be a good way to start writing dedicated questions. Just tell me what you think about it:

Top 20 steps Piwik users go through in the first 6 months of use

1 - Auditing the existing system: this step consists in looking at what has already been set on a current website or application. This step includes: looking at the version of Piwik, where the code has been inserted, if any bespoke code has been added, goals set… 2 - Defining the needs of Piwik users: this step consists in listing what the user wants. By listing their needs, the person in charge of the Piwik installation can identify if the software fits their needs and already have an idea of how to create the measurement plan. 3 - Writing the specification document: this step consists in writing an exhaustive documentation of what we plan to install and how do we set up Piwik. This part includes the measurement plan which is explaining why and how we will install some custom code. This document is also listing the actions that we plan to do if some scenarios happen. 4 - Piwik database installation: (if it is a new installation)it is time to make your hands dirty. The database has to be created by following security best practices. 5 - Piwik set up: once the database installed, we need to configure Piwik in order to collect unbiased data once the code will be live. At this step you will configure the number of users, the IP filtering, the internal search engine… let’s say everything which deal with the back-office and parameters functionalities. Adding Piwik plugins is also part of the set up. 6 - Importing data: This step is optionnal and depends on your history but you can import logs data, Google Analytics and Piwik data to your new account. 7 - Inserting Piwik code: you can now change the current Piwik code if there was one, or add your code for the first time. It is at this step too that you can add custom tracking code: e-commerce, event, custom variables… 8 - Testing the data collection: once the code live(if it is critical you can send the data to a Piwik test account) you have to test every bit of code you added to the site. You can do that by checking in real time if your account is receiving data from visits, events, e-commerce, goals… 9 - Set up the reporting part for users: according to the spec document you wrote previously you can create custom dashboard, custom segments and custom alerts. 10 - Data collection: according to your custom alerts and the time you afford you in order to take a decision, wait a bit in order to collect enough data in order to have something reliable and define a date or a limit at when you will decide to move forward. It is also at this step that you can regularly check if the data collection fits the data you collected in the past. 11 - Data analysis: data has been collected, it is now time to analyze them. According to your needs you defined within the specs, look at the KPI in order to see if they are in accordance with your goals. If they do not fit your expectations then you need to apply the scenario you defined, if they fit then you can fix another goal or move to another priority. 12 - Data visualization: time for the show. You made the analysis, it is now time to show it to your public. For that you need to define what would be the best way to introduce the results: a .pdf document, a dashboard, a datasheet... 13 - Taking actions: Positive or not, the KPI you defined need to be followed by actions. At this step you are acting in order to reach one of the treshold you fixed on one of your KPI. For example: 203 pages with a not found status have been found. Your action is to fix all of them in order to have your goal of “No 404 is acceptable” reached. 14 - Analyzing your actions: did the actions you made paid? if yes then you can move to another goal. If not then you need to find another way in order to fix the situation. Then analyze the results again. 15 - Think of new version of your new system: now that you know analytics it is time to go further and think about new data you could import or collect through Piwik in order to improve even more your website or web application.

[mattab]

Thanks @NanorPiwik for your notes and suggestions! this makes a good starting point for approaching an analytics tool like Piwik and establishing a process to make the most of the data. What do you think should be our next step to create a Piwik Certification?

[NanorPiwik]

Hi Matt,

Well I think that we are still in what you mentioned as "Proposed steps". So the next step may be:

• Listing all Piwik user guides (in order to see if they are compliant with the different steps I listed)
• Adding extra questions to the document I made in order to have enough questions for the 15 steps I defined
• Adding the link for the answer to every page on the Piwik website(if applicable)

Then we could move forward :) I wish I will have my 100 question document finished soon

Cheers

[NanorPiwik]

Hi Matt, I finally got an idea, but I think it was your first thought since the beginning. In fact we can easily set up a first certification, the concept is really simple, we just grab the following url http://piwik.org/docs/ then we split this page in sub parts, each sub part will be the subject of one question, so that would represent a set of approximately 200 questions, the idea would be to pick some randomly to have a set of 100 questions. Google and Microsoft are doing such certifications, but they are really low quality one where people just need to look at the documentation without thinking, but at least we could have one certification ready to run, that should not be complicated for me to do. We could call this certification "Piwik Documentation Reader Certified" :P and make a more serious certification such as "Piwik Web Analyst" when we could ask more specific and questions where the answer is not directly written within our documentation. ... Not sure if my message is very clear :(

[ghost]

Hi guys,

I'm really interested in this project.

I believe that Piwik need a Professional Certification how Google Analytics.

The next step could be to create the Academy similar to Google Analytics where the users can see videos, make exercises and download documents.

Also I think that the Piwik team can appoint "boss or ambassador" in each country, for example, NanorPiwik could be ambassador in France and I could be ambassador in Spain.

Each ambassador it should prepare documentation in your language for a new users.

Conference? Merchandising? Guides? Videos? Badges?

The price? I think that $50 is ok and only must renew if Piwik have a lot of important changes.

I go to write a post in a blog about Piwik, I want make an appeal to all spanish users that use Piwik, asking for recognition to this Certificate.

Bye,

Enrique.

[MagicFab]

@evelascosilva please don't copy copyrighted content here, specially not from GA offerings/pages. Could you please remove your content?

"El uso de nuestros Servicios no te convierte en titular de ninguno de los derechos de propiedad intelectual de los mismos ni del contenido al que accedas. Solo podrás usar el contenido de nuestros Servicios si te autoriza su titular o si está permitido por la ley. " http://www.google.es/intl/es/policies/terms/regional.html

[MagicFab]

At the Berlin Piwik meetup another way of recognizing Piwik exceptional contributors offering commercial services was discussed, I proposed the term "Community Professional", perhaps this could be a requirement/distinction in the certification. See https://trello.com/c/DDIKEKDY/18-12-20-12-50-how-do-piwik-org-project-and-piwik-pro-company-sit-together-are-organized-discussing-the-new-team-page

[ghost]

Hi @MagicFab,

Sorry for to copy this content but only was an idea :+1:

If I can make something...I'm your man! ;-)

[gibsonsdad]

The best way to implement a database of questions as I think Nanor suggests is to use a computer adaptive testing system and/or require the test be taken proctored. Both solutions would be quite easy to implement.. As to what should covered by such a certification assessment, it will need to satisfy employers.. There should be an effort to identify and survey those organizations who might hire either as freelancer and ask what evidence of skills they think are vital.

[NanorPiwik]

Hi there, I worked very hard this week and if everything goes according to the plan, end of this week-end I should be able to provide you with an alpha version of the certification made of 100 questions (in French), I used Lime Survey as it is Open Source for the certification platform. Hope you will like it.

[NanorPiwik]

Hi there, Here is what I succeeded in doing so far : http://pk-certification.limequery.com/578922?lang=fr I still need to understand better how Lime Survey is working. At the moment the final score cannot be displayed which is a lot of frustration. Still working on it.

[ashgoodman]

Hi guys, where do things stand with regards to piwik certification?

Suggested study materials?

[StefanKoning]

In collaboration with many Piwik experts and enthusiasts, we finally established an official Piwik Certification Program! Here is the link to the certification website: https://certification.piwik.org

Please find the official announcement and additional information about the certification exam here: https://certification.piwik.org/piwik-launches-certified-professional-credential/

I wish you all the best with passing the exam and becoming officially recognized as a Piwik Certified Professional!

Cheers, Stefan Koning

[MagicFab]

@StefanKoning although it's great news, it's disappointing this shows up without a single previous comment, invitation to participate or other related comment on this issue report. It seems @NanorPiwik may have been involved in this as I see his picture among the three testimonials, and Innocraft / @mattab lead this effort (as the agreement is governed by laws in New Zealand). It would have been nice to show more transparency here but I can think of a few reasons why this didn't happen.

I noticed the date of birth is a requirement at registration, unfortunately this will be filled by invalid information if it remains a hard requirement. Could this be dropped from the registration form?

Very exciting to see this finally land!

[mattab]

Hi @MagicFab

Fyi: we involved a lot of people in the process, but we didn't make it public as we didn't have to. And obviously the questions & answers are confidential and secret. We did involve the active Piwik team members and contributors along with a few selected and trusted Piwik & Digital Analytics experts.

@StefanKoning would be good to remove the "Date of birth" requirement if possible

If you take the exam and have constructive feedback please share with us privately and we'll be pleased to improve the certification :+1:

[mattab]

:tada: Closing this 3 year old issue as the official Piwik Certification is live! :tada: Awesome work everyone

[MagicFab]

@mattab thanks for clarifying, glad my intuition was right. I don't mean to minimize your effort and work, specially with the great results I see.

As you know I am not too keen on providing private feedback even when on payroll when it involves free open source software, but I'll take the opportunity if it presents itself, thanks again for your hard work :)

[warenhaus]

@mattab and now the program is gone again?

[MagicFab]

Gone since May, apparently : https://matomo.org/faq/general/is-there-a-matomo-certification-or-training-program/

[mattab]

Yes, we have decided to discontinue the program because it didn't have the traction we hoped for, it wasn't up to date anymore, and some of the questions were not really helpful. We also released the training videos and plan on releasing more resources in the future (still hiring someone to help us: https://matomo.org/digital-analytics-expert-content-writer/ )