Show TOC

Procedure documentationManaging Questionnaires

 

As a Questionnaire Manager you can create, edit, and delete questionnaires. By doing so, you manage the repository of all questionnaires available for usage in your business process.

Note Note

There are separate questionnaires for supplier qualification and for supplier evaluation. Questionnaires used in one business process cannot be used in the other business process.

End of the note.

You can organize questionnaires as follows, for example:

  • Depending on the information you want to gather, you can create specific questionnaires.

    Example Example

    • Questionnaire 1 is about product standard compliance: To which extent do suppliers comply with specific product standards? (supplier qualification)

    • Questionnaire 2 is about service attitude: What kind of experience have appraisers within your company gained with suppliers when they needed support? (supplier evaluation)

    End of the example.

  • You assign purchasing categories to the questionnaires.

Prerequisites

Questions and sections are available in the question library. For more information, see Managing Questions and Sections in the Question Library.

Procedure

Creating Questionnaires

  1. Under Qualification Questionnaires, or Evaluation Questionnaires, respectively, select the service for questionnaire creation. Alternatively, you can click Create in the personal object worklist (POWL) of the questionnaires.

  2. Enter a questionnaire name. Note that the questionnaire name cannot be translated into other languages. It is only displayed in the language in which it was created.

  3. Enter a purchaser responsible for this questionnaire. You can use the search help.

    Unless you create the questionnaire on behalf of someone else, you are the purchaser responsible for questionnaires you create.

  4. Assign one or more purchasing categories to your questionnaire.

    This is an optional step. Assigning purchasing categories to questionnaires facilitates retrieving them, for example when a Category Manager searches for questionnaires to assign them to a qualification or evaluation template.

  5. You can enter an internal note in the corresponding text field, for example to provide additional information for Category Managers using the questionnaire. The note is only visible when questionnaires are opened on the buy side of SAP Supplier Lifecycle Management.

  6. Maintain the overall minimum score and the overall target score for your questionnaire.

    These scores are benchmarks for internal analyses.

    For more information, see Scores and Weightings.

Adding Sections and Questions to Questionnaires

Sections are subdivisions of questionnaires. You use them as containers for questions belonging to the same topic. Both questions and sections are maintained in the question library.

Sections and questions are organized in groups in the question library. You use groups to unite sections and questions under a higher-level topic.

Note Note

You have to add a section to your questionnaire first to subsequently assign questions to it.

End of the note.
Adding Sections

  1. Click Add Section.

  2. In the dialog box that opens, search for sections by section names, by groups, by section titles, by the person who created them, or by a combination of these attributes.

  3. Select the sections you want to use from the search results and click OK to include them into your questionnaire.

  4. Assign weightings, minimum scores accepted, and target scores to the sections. For more information, see Scores and Weightings. You can also perform this step after you have filled your sections with questions.

Adding Questions

  1. Select the section to which you want to assign one or more questions.

  2. Click Add Question.

  3. In the dialog box that opens, search for questions by question names, groups, question types, the person who created them, or by a combination of these attributes.

  4. Select the question you want to use from the search results and click OK to include them into the selected section.

  5. Assign weightings, minimum scores accepted, and target scores to the questions.

  6. Define whether answering the question is mandatory or not.

    If you mark a question as mandatory, the questionnaire can only be submitted if the question has been answered.

    Note that this option is only available for yes/no questions and certificate questions.

  7. Define whether the question is disqualifying or not. This means that if the answer given to the question does not meet your expectations, the supplier is disqualified.

Note Note

  • Only questions of the type “Yes/no” and certificate questions can be marked as disqualifying.

  • The information whether a question is disqualifying is not visible to the recipient of the question.

  • If a recipient gives a disqualifying answer, this is indicated in the evaluation or qualification response. This indicator is only for your information, it has no direct consequences on the status of the supplier, for example.

End of the note.
Adding Dependent Questions

You can add questions to your questionnaire that are only displayed if the recipient has given a specific answer to a preceding question. These questions are called dependent questions. The preceding question is referred to as the branching question.

Example Example

In a branching question, you ask the suppliers whether they follow any environmental safety regulations. If they choose "Yes", a set of further questions is displayed, asking more detailed questions about the regulations. If they choose "No", a question is displayed asking the suppliers whether they intend to implement environmental safety regulations.

End of the example.

To add dependent questions to your questionnaire, proceed as follows:

  1. Insert a question that you want to use as the branching question or use a question that is already contained in the section. Note that only the following question types can be used as branching questions:

    • Yes/no question

    • Single-answer question

    • Certificate question

  2. Select the branching question, and click Add Dependent Question.

  3. In the dialog box that opens, select the answer option for which you want to specify the dependent questions.

  4. Search for questions by question names, groups, question types, the person who created them, or by a combination of these attributes.

  5. Select the questions you want to use from the search results and click OK to insert them below the branching question. After the dialog box is closed, the dependent questions are listed below the answer option to which they belong.

  6. If you want to add dependent questions for another answer option of the same question, repeat steps 3 to 6.

    Note Note

    • You always have to select a branching question or an answer option if you want to add dependent questions. Otherwise the Add Dependent Question button is not active.

    • A dependent question cannot be based on a question that is a dependent question itself. In other words, dependent questions cannot be nested.

    • Dependent questions cannot be marked as disqualifying.

    • You cannot specify scores and weightings for dependent questions. Only the score of the superordinate branching question is used for the calculation of the total score.

    End of the note.
Defining Translation Languages for the External Questionnaire Name

In addition to the Questionnaire Name, which cannot be translated, you can create an External Questionnaire Name. The external questionnaire name is mainly intended for the recipients of questionnaires and can therefore be translated. If you define both a Questionnaire Name and an External Questionnaire Name, recipients of the questionnaire only see the external questionnaire name, provided that it is available in their logon language. If the external questionnaire name is not available in their logon language, the recipients only see the Questionnaire Name.

Note Note

You can only enter an external name and define translation languages if the Customizing switch Enable Translation of Texts for Supplier Communication (for supplier qualification questionnaires) or the Customizing switch Enable Translation of Texts for Appraiser Communication (for supplier evaluation questionnaires) is active.

End of the note.

To initiate the translation of an external questionnaire name, proceed as follows:

  1. Specify an external questionnaire name.

  2. Add all languages into which you want the external questionnaire name to be translated.

  3. Ensure that the status for each language is To Be Translated.

As a result, the external questionnaire name appears in the translation application.

You can change the translation status at any time. For example, if you change a text and want the translation to be updated, you can set the status back to To Be Translated. You can also remove translation languages, independent of the translation status of the text.

Changing the translation status to one of the other statuses is not recommended. The statuses In Translation and Translated are intended to be set by translators only.

Note Note

When creating or editing a questionnaire, you can see the external questionnaire name only in its original language. To display the translation, use the translation application. This is only possible if you have translation authorization.

End of the note.
Releasing Questionnaires

To release your questionnaire, click Release.

Copying Questionnaires

Copying questionnaires is useful if you want to take over data from existing questionnaires. By default, the name of a newly created questionnaire starts with “Copy of”. You can change all data belonging to a copied questionnaire. For example, you can add or delete questions and sections, or you can adapt the scores.

Note Note

  • If you copy a questionnaire for which a translated external questionnaire name exists, the translation status of the copied external name is To Be Translated.

  • If you copy a questionnaire that has the status Released, the status of the copied questionnaire is In Preparation.

End of the note.

To copy a questionnaire, select the questionnaire in the POWL and click Copy.

Editing and Deleting Questionnaires

To delete an existing questionnaire, select it in the POWL of the questionnaires and click Delete. You can only delete questionnaires that have the status in preparation. If the questionnaire has a different status, you can set the questionnaire to obsolete to exclude it from future usage. Note that, by default, you cannot view obsolete questionnaires in the questionnaires POWL. To view obsolete questionnaires, you have to search for them by selecting the Obsolete status in the Quick Criteria Maintenance.

To edit an existing questionnaire, open it from the POWL of the questionnaires. You can only edit questionnaires that have the status in preparation or released.

More Information

Availability of Translations of Questions and Sections

Translating External Questionnaire Names

Required Roles

You have been assigned the Questionnaire Manager (/SRMSMC/QUESTIONNAIRE_MANAGER) role.

Required Business Functions

Depending on the business process for which the questionnaire is used, at least one of the following business functions must be activated:

Required Customizing Switches

If you require the translation of external questionnaire names, the following activities are relevant in Customizing for SAP Supplier Lifecycle Management:

Supplier Qualification

Start of the navigation path Sell Side Next navigation step Supplier Qualification Next navigation step Enable Translation of Texts for Supplier Communication End of the navigation path

Start of the navigation path Buy Side Next navigation step Supplier Qualification Next navigation step Basic Settings for Supplier Qualification Next navigation step Enable Translation of Texts for Supplier Communication End of the navigation path

Supplier Evaluation

Start of the navigation path Buy Side Next navigation step Supplier Evaluation Next navigation step Basic Settings for Supplier Evaluation Next navigation step Enable Translation of Texts for Appraiser Communication End of the navigation path

Customizing

Depending on the business process for which the questionnaire is used, the following activities are relevant in Customizing for SAP Supplier Lifecycle Management:

Supplier Qualification

Start of the navigation path Buy Side Next navigation step Supplier Qualification Next navigation step Number Ranges for Supplier Qualification Next navigation step Define Number Range for Qualification Questionnaires End of the navigation path

Supplier Evaluation

Start of the navigation path Buy Side Next navigation step Supplier Evaluation Next navigation step Number Ranges for Supplier Evaluation Next navigation step Define Number Range for Evaluation Questionnaires End of the navigation path