WISEdata Certification Process

The certification process ensures that vendors’ products used by Wisconsin’s school districts, charter schools, and private schools in the parental Choice program are compatible with WISEdata Ed-Fi applications. Certification is required annually to address changes in data requirements to ensure that data from the vendor’s system is delivered correctly. In some years, there may be no changes for read-only, special education, discipline, or finance vendors. During those years, these vendors’ certifications are grandfathered to the next year.

Steps to Certification:

1. Review Requirements: What's New (See WISEdata Vendor Pre-Conference Slide Deck & Project List) (Jan-March)

   • Review the requirement specifications with Wisconsin’s DPI.

   • Complete development and internal testing in the User Acceptance Test (UAT) environment.

2. Re-review Use Cases: What's New (See Use Cases) (Jan-March)

   • Re-review Wisconsin’s DPI use cases for the specific collection you are certifying.

   • Ensure all use cases are covered in development and testing.

3. Schedule Testing Session: Schedule an Integration Testing Session (March/April)

   • The recommended number of testing sessions varies by vendor type and year, see details on the “What’s New” page.

4. Integration Testing and Certification (Apr-July):

   • Upon completion, Wisconsin’s DPI will issue production credentials, allowing the certified vendor to send data for that collection on behalf of the LEA. (July)

5. Beta Testing (Optional) (July):
   Once certified and after the new school year has opened, DPI recommends that Vendors select an LEA to participate in Beta testing with one or two LEAs in production. When beta testing in the production environment:

   • Vendors and LEAs should review validation messages and data using the Ed-Fi Credential application and the WISEdata Portal.

   • Ensure the data sent matches what was received in WISEdata.

   • Implement input validations on the vendor’s product to prevent erroneous data.

   • Once no critical issues are identified, the vendor can open the new collections to additional LEAs.

By following these steps, vendors can ensure their products are certified and interoperable with WISEdata Ed-Fi applications, facilitating accurate and efficient data reporting.

• Vendors must successfully complete all use cases to achieve certification by August 1st annually.