Creating a Question-Based Assessment

Learn how to create Question-Based Assessments (QBAs) and templates

A Question-Based Assessment (QBA) is a review conducted to assess various aspects of operations within an organization using a structured set of questions designed to gather specific information.

Starting from scratch

To create a QBA from scratch, go to the Start from scratch tab.

Fill in the following fields:

Name: A unique name for the assessment
Authority/Control Set: Select an authority or a control set, whose provisions/controls you can link to the questions; you can change this later, and it is optional depending on the kind of questions you want to ask
Respondent: Define whether the respondent for the assessment will be internal or external
Product: Assign a product for the assessment. This field is optional and is used for grouping assessments.
Assessment style: Risk rated or Weighted score.

If you are creating a template, Respondent is optional.

Click Create and you are now ready to add questions to the assessment.

Creating an assessment using a template

The purpose of a template is that, once published, it can be used to create more assessments with the pre-populated questions and answers. A use case for this may be a monthly or vendor assessment that has a similar structure but may or may not change slightly.

You can also create a QBA based on a template, a previously-run assessment, or a template added from the 6clicks Content Library.

In the Select from template tab, Find the template or previous assessment that you want to base your QBA on by using the search bar or the filters. Click Next to continue.

With the rest of the fields already pre-filled, you can give the assessment a new Name, and define its Respondent and Product.

Click Create and you are now ready to add questions to the assessment.

Creating assessment templates

To create a new assessment template, simply follow the same steps for creating an assessment.

Once you have completed the necessary details, click Save as template instead of Create.

You are now ready to add questions to the assessment template.

When you are done, this template can then be used to create assessments. When using a template to create assessments, you can add additional questions and make any edits to tailor each assessment to their target audience, e.g. your third-parties/vendors.

You can also customize an assessment or assessment template with an introduction and end page.

Importing QBA questions and/or answers from any Excel/CSV file

Suppose you have an assessment you have created with an Excel spreadsheet that has just the questions or both questions and answers that you wish to import into 6clicks. You can import QBA questions and/or answers from any Excel .xlsx or .csv file using the Import Assessment functionality in the Audits and Assessments module.

Note:

No specific template is required
The import will analyse the column and heading details in your file to automatically detect key information
A cleaner file, with clear column names and minimal formatting will result in the best import accuracy

Navigate to the Audits and Assessments module. Click Import Assessment.

Select the Import type to choose 'New assessments (questions)' or, if your file contains questions and answers (i.e., a previously filled assessment), choose 'Completed assessment (questions & answers).

Drag and drop the file from your computer as directed or click on Browse files to find and select your .xlsx or .csv file.

Click Import.

Once the file has uploaded, you will be presented with a secondary section which the system will pre-fill but you should review and update this, if necessary. Click Import.

qba_importassessments2

If the file only contained questions, you will be prompted whether or not you would like to import this assessment as a template.

If the file contained questions and answers, as noted in the displayed status, the assessment will be set to status 'In Progress' for your review and for you to submit, when applicable.