Survey or Questionnaire · Business Analysis Notes

What it is#

In the BABOK® Guide, a survey or questionnaire is a set of structured questions sent to a group of stakeholders. Their responses are collected and analyzed to build knowledge about a topic. The questions must be worded so that they do not steer the answer.

As with interviews, there are two types of question:

Closed questions offer fixed answers: yes or no, multiple choice, rating scales, rankings. They are quick to answer and produce numbers you can count.
Open questions let people answer in their own words. They bring insights and opinions you did not anticipate, but take more effort to analyze.

The BABOK Guide organizes the technique in three stages: prepare, distribute, and document the results. Preparation is where most of the work lies: define the objective, define the target group, choose the type of survey, select the sample, choose how to distribute and collect it, set the target response level and deadline, decide whether interviews should support it, write the questions, and test the survey.

Leffingwell and Widrig add an important caution: a questionnaire is no substitute for interviews. Use it to test assumptions you formed in interviews and to measure how widely preferences are shared.

When to use it#

There are many stakeholders, or they are spread across locations.
You need numbers: how many, how often, how satisfied.
You want to test findings from interviews or workshops with a wider group.
You need a baseline before a change and a comparison after it. The BABOK Guide lists surveys for a wide range of tasks, from planning and Conduct Elicitation (4.2) to most of Solution Evaluation (8.1–8.5).

Its strengths: it is simple, fast, and relatively cheap; it asks little of each respondent; and it reaches people you could never meet one by one.

Use something else, or add to it, when:

you do not yet know what to ask; start with interviews or observation;
the topic needs follow-up questions or depends on tacit, hard-to-describe knowledge;
the group is small; a conversation is faster and richer;
you need statistically sound results but nobody can design the sample. The BABOK Guide warns that unbiased results may require sampling skills, and that low response rates can make results insignificant.

How to do it#

Write the objective: the decision the survey will inform. Drop any question that does not serve it.
Define the target group and sample. Survey everyone, or a sample that represents the groups that matter. Think about who will not answer.
Choose format and channel: online form, paper at the counter, link in an email; anonymous or named.
Write the questions: - one idea per question; - neutral wording, with no hint of the “right” answer; - balanced rating scales with a midpoint, plus “don’t know” or “not applicable”; - answer options that do not overlap and cover all cases; - plain words, with any necessary terms defined at the top; - general questions first, sensitive and personal ones last; - only a few open questions, placed where they add the most.
Pilot it with a handful of people from the target group. Watch them answer and fix anything they stumble on.
Set a deadline and a target response level, and plan one reminder.
Distribute with a short note: purpose, time needed, how the results will be used, and whether answers are anonymous.
Analyze: counts and percentages for closed questions, compared across groups; open answers sorted into themes.
Report with limitations (response rate, who did not answer) and plan follow-up interviews for surprising results.

Example#

The Workshop, a fictional chain of 12 bike-repair workshops, runs two short surveys: one for customers, linked from receipts and booking confirmations, about booking channels and status messages; and one for staff in all 12 workshops about where parts ordering loses time.

Drafts improved during testing:

Draft question	Problem	Improved question
“Wouldn’t online booking be easier for you?”	Leading	“How would you prefer to book a repair?” (phone / walk-in / online / no preference)
“How satisfied are you with booking and repair speed?”	Two questions in one	Two separate questions, each on a five-point scale with “not applicable”
“How often do parts shortages happen?”	Vague answer scale	“In the last month, how many jobs did you pause because a part was missing?” (0 / 1–2 / 3–5 / more than 5 / don’t know)
“Any comments?”	Too broad to analyze	“What one change to parts ordering would save you the most time?”

The staff pilot with two mechanics showed that “job” meant different things in different workshops, so the final version defined it at the top.

Common mistakes#

Leading or loaded questions → use neutral wording and test with real respondents.
Two questions in one → one idea per question.
Ambiguous questions → they get skipped or answered wrongly; define terms and pilot.
Too long → every question costs responses; cut what does not serve the objective.
Over-reading small or skewed samples → report the response rate and present results as indications.
Ignoring open answers → they need more analysis, but often contain the most useful findings; group them into themes.
No follow-up → plan a clarifying round or interviews when results raise new questions.

Checklist#

The objective and the decision it informs are written down.
The target group and sample are defined, including who might be missed.
Every question serves the objective and covers one idea.
Wording is neutral; scales are balanced and include “don’t know” or “not applicable”.
The survey was piloted with real respondents and revised.
Deadline, target response level, and reminder are set.
Results are reported with response rate and limitations.
Follow-up actions are planned for surprises.

Sources and further reading#

IIBA. A Guide to the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge (BABOK® Guide), version 3. International Institute of Business Analysis, 2015, technique 10.45 “Survey or Questionnaire”.
Watermark Learning. BABOK v3 Study Tables. 2016. (study aid for the BABOK Guide), technique 10.45.
D. Leffingwell, D. Widrig. Managing Software Requirements: A Unified Approach. Addison-Wesley, 2000 (questionnaires as a complement to interviews).