Use > Build > Survey Management > Survey Management workflow
Click to learn about the Creation phases Click to learn about the Publication phases Click to learn about the Consumption phases Click to learn about the Retirement (End) phases Click to learn more about the Draft phases Click to learn more about the Active phases Click to learn more about the Done (End) phases

Survey Management workflow

This section describes the metaphases and subordinate phases in the life cycle of a survey.

Metaphase: Creation

The survey is created.

Phase Transition Description
Create Manual

The Survey Editor creates a survey and adds sections, structure, and questions to it, as well as selecting the fields that will appear in the survey reports.

Note The survey cannot advance to Prepare phase until at least one question has been added to a survey.

It is possible to return a survey to Create phase from a later phase. You can add new questions, inactivate existing questions (thereby removing them from the survey sent to users), or add report fields. This has the following implications:

  • An existing survey that already has results is being edited.
  • Changing existing questions might change their meanings in the results.

However, in order to maintain data integrity, you cannot:

  • Change the type of existing questions.
  • Add or remove questions from existing Rating group questions.
  • Change the record type of the survey.
  • Remove existing report fields related to either the record type or the user.

Each time you move an executed survey back to Create phase, its version is incremented. This enables filtering in the reports only responses that were answered on specific versions of the survey.

Next phase: Prepare

Metaphase: Publication

The survey is prepared for execution.

Phase Transition Description
Prepare Manual or automatic

In this phase, the Survey Editor can define execution dates, create business rules for sending the survey, and prepare reports.

If an Active from date is specified, the workflow automatically transitions to Execute phase when this date is reached.

The Survey Editor can return the survey to Create phase to add additional questions to the survey or change the fields to be included in a report.

Note Business rules are active and reports can be consumed only when the survey is in Execute phase.

Next phase: Execute or Create

Metaphase: Consumption

The survey has been sent out and data is being collected.

Phase Transition Description
Execute Manual or automatic

In this phase only, business rules are active and answers are being collected.

If an Active until date is specified, the workflow automatically transitions to Assess phase when this date is reached.

Data is aggregated and sent to the analytics database once every 24 hours.

Next phase: Assess or Create

Assess Manual

In this phase, no further data is collected. At this point, the Survey Editor can analyze reports and review hot topics.

Next phase: Archived, Create, Prepare, or Execute.

Metaphase: Retirement (End)

The survey is inactive.

Phase Transition Description
Archived None

Execution and review of the survey is complete.

The survey is inactive, and no further data usage occurs. Also, all saved data is cleared out, and reports are inactivated to free up quota for the tenant.

Next phase: None

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