Design and Implementation of the Tianhe Data Tracking Management Platform at Dada Group

Dada Group’s rapid product expansion resulted in a high volume of data‑tracking (埋点) requirements, prompting the development of the Tianhe tracking management platform to control process and quality.

The existing approach suffered from difficult usage, inconsistent standards, chaotic management, and lack of verification, leading to inefficiencies and data‑cleaning costs.

Tianhe’s objectives include defining a clear tracking workflow and roles, adhering to current tracking frameworks, unifying field specifications for queryability, providing real‑time and T+1 validation, and supporting multi‑system extensions with permission and security isolation.

The platform’s architecture was designed to meet these goals, featuring modules for requirement management, a comprehensive tracking encyclopedia, and data reporting, supplemented by configuration, homepage, and help sections.

Requirement management follows four stages—submission, design, development, and testing—ensuring structured intake, standardized design, smooth developer hand‑off, and automated verification against live logs.

Design considerations balance legacy compatibility, readability, and queryability, while also handling special cases such as exposure aggregation and combined front‑back end tracking.

Development supports atomic task allocation and provides tools for rapid log‑design comparison; testing validates trigger success and archives completed items.

The tracking encyclopedia offers up‑to‑date naming, parameters, and historical changes, whereas data reports enable real‑time trend analysis across cities, platforms, and versions.

Additional modules include application registration, version management, page management, operation audit, homepage shortcuts, and a help center to ensure smooth platform operation.

Since launch, Tianhe has undergone four minor releases, supporting 23 systems, over 3,000 pages, and more than 10,000 events, and continues to onboard new services.

Future enhancements aim to create a closed‑loop traffic data entry point, richer dashboards covering exposure and backend tracking, self‑service validation with automated alerts, and decentralized administration for multiple business lines.