Preparing for Certification
This section provides advice on preparing for certification.
Pilot with Real Users
Above all, the Ed-Fi Alliance strongly recommends piloting with actual schools as you build your API. Certification is not a precise proxy for what your product users will value most from the integration. As you build, you will face many questions, such as:
- Will users understand when and how data is moving between systems?
- What data should I map and provide first – what would be most valuable?
- Would it be best to put the button here or over there? Is this description comprehensible?
- How do I surface errors to users so they can understand them?
The best way to answer these questions is to build your integration functionality in collaboration with your actual users or customers.
Certification is not your end goal: your end goal is to help teachers, students, and other classroom stakeholders get the data they need to make the best possible decisions. Develop for success first, certify second.