PeopleSoft has recently released a new and very powerful feature—PeopleSoft Questionnaire Framework. By utilizing this feature, business users can easily create questionnaires or surveys within Activity Guide Composer. The questionnaires are fully customizable, which allows question and answer options to either be invented by the user or implemented from a pool of options.

Before diving in, it is important to note that PeopleSoft Questionnaire Framework does not require any outside intervention from development teams or coders. Everything can be accomplished by a business user with appropriate access, which is determined by the Questionnaire Administrator.

As part of PeopleSoft Global Day, Rahul Chauhan, Senior Principal Applications Engineer for PeopleSoft, walked through the options available within PeopleSoft Questionnaire Framework and an example of a helpful use case.

Let’s jump into the example the Rahul gave.

Example of a PeopleSoft Questionnaire Framework Use Case

Suppose you have a new hire who is expected to complete new hire onboarding. That new hire will log in to the PeopleSoft portal of your organization to see an onboarding title, which launches an Activity Guide to help complete the onboarding checklist. One of the steps is an onboarding survey that the organization wants the new hire to take so that they can gather feedback on the recruitment and onboarding process experience.

After completing the other steps, the new hire reaches the onboarding survey. The questionnaire has a variety of questions types, including open-ended, multiple choice, single-select, and ranking questions. It also has input validation, so if the new hire skips a required question (marked by an asterisk), the system will prompt him at the point of submission and restrict him from submitting responses until each required question has been answered. After submission, the organization will have access to the answers.

In this case, how did the completed questionnaire come into existence? The answer is PeopleSoft Questionnaire Framework.

Why Use PeopleSoft Questionnaire Framework?

Although there are infinite reasons to deploy a questionnaire on either the macro or micro level, the most relevant questionnaires are used to identify areas of improvement within an organization. As users submit answers to carefully curated questions, problem areas are identified. Once problem areas are known, organizations can begin seeking solutions.

In addition, questionnaires communicate to the users that their opinions matter at their organization.

To easily create, customize, and apply questionnaires, use the PeopleSoft Questionnaire Framework within Activity Guide Composer. This will help you analyze every aspect of your business, make applicable change, and achieve greater success.

PeopleSoft Questionnaire Framework is currently available only for Enterprise Content Management systems, but there are plans to release it for all modules in the future.

How It Works

After logging in to PeopleSoft as a business user, launch the Manage Questionnaire page. On this page, click “Create Questionnaire.” You will be prompted to enter identifier information like questionnaire name, questionnaire code, and category. Then, click “Done.” This process will launch a series of eight steps that you’ll need to complete.

The first step is to fill in the description of your questionnaire and click “Next.”

The second step is to create Start Instructions and Completed Instructions. Start Instructions are instructions rendered to the end user on the top of the questionnaire. Completed Instructions are instructions that appear to the end user after he or she submits the questionnaire. Both sets of instructions are optional to include in the questionnaire. Once you’ve created the instructions, click “Next.”

The third step is to add questions to the survey or questionnaire. You can either use pre-existing questions or add new ones. Each question can be configured as a specific type.

Examples of question types include:

• Date Required
• Single Choice
• Multi-Choice
• Open-Ended
• Smart Answers

Make sure to add all desired questions before moving on to the next step.

The fourth step is to format the questionnaire by organizing the question groups. Compartmentalize the questionnaire by creating different sections in order to make it look more presentable to the end user. Examples of question groups that could be applied to the example above about the onboarding questionnaire might be “Interview + Orientation” or “First Impressions.”

The fifth step is to preview the questionnaire. This shows you the questionnaire as it would appear to the end user. This is a valuable tool, and it is suggested that users take advantage of it before activating the questionnaire or survey.

The sixth step is to apply special configurations for the end user if desired. Examples of configurations might include:

• Randomize Question
• Randomize Answer
• Anonymous Questionnaire
• Allow User Updates After Save

The seventh step is to update the question and/or answer pools with the questions you created for this survey.

The eighth and final step is to activate the questionnaire.

This new questionnaire can be plugged into an Activity Guide by the business user through Activity Guide Composer. The steps for doing so are entirely online, so it requires no intervention from development or coding teams.

Additional Pages

There are additional set-up pages that exist.

One of the pages is the Questionnaire Category page, which allows the Questionnaire Administrator to categorize questionnaires or surveys. A category is used to group similar questions, answers, smart answers, and questionnaires. It is also used to set permissions and security settings for users. For example, a Human Resources category could exist, and only the HR Administrator could select questions from the category.

Another set-up page is the Question Pool page, which enables the creation of questions that can be used within questionnaires. Questions are grouped by category, and a question in one category can only be used in a questionnaire created in the same category. If a question is found in the “Common” category, it can be used across all questionnaires. To add questions to the question pool, you’ll simply need to define a category, enter the question, and click “Save.” There is also an Answer Pool page that is similar to the Question Pool page, but it is used for creating answers instead of questions.

The Smart Answers page allows you to create a shortcut in the Questionnaire Design page to group similar answers together. All answers grouped in smart answers will populate when selected on the questionnaire, which will ultimately save you time. There are a number of smart answers that are readily available to your company. You can also create your own smart answers if you would like to.