Exact Synergy Enterprise

How-to: Managing Assessments

Introduction

Exact Synergy Enterprise allows you to design, schedule, execute, and analyze assessments such as tests, polls, and quality analysis. However, in this document, the descriptions will refer to a test or poll. This functionality is completely integrated into the rest of Exact Synergy Enterprise and based on the Logistics, Documents, Projects, and Workflow modules.

Preliminary

You have to do the following before you can define the settings, design, and execute any assessment:

Create an item for an assessment at Modules ? Logistics ? Entry ? General ? Items. The remarks of the item will be displayed on the first page of the assessment when it is executed. For more information, see Creating and modifying items.
Note: An assessment is defined as an item. A question is defined as an item linked to the assessment with an item relation. Therefore, the same question can be re-used in different assessments. The assessment can only be modified by the owner of the item created.
Create a document type that will contain the assessment questions at Modules ? Documents ? Setup ? Maintenance ? Document: Types. Select Yes (Optional) at Use in the Items section in the Synergy links tab of the document type maintenance screen. For more information, see Creating and modifying document types.
Create a request type to be used to plan the assessment at Modules ? Workflow ? Setup ? Requests ? Requests types. For more information, see Creating and modifying request types. Each request type can only be used with one type of assessment. Only people that have a request of this type can execute the assessment. The request type should meet the following criteria:
- The request type should at least have the Realize workflow step so that the person who has executed the corresponding request can realize the request. For more information, see Creating and modifying request types - Flow tab.
- The Item request type field is set to optional so that an assessment item can be linked to the request. You can name this field as Test item or Poll item. For more information, see Customizing request type fields (main document) and Customizing request type fields - Item 1 & item 2.
- The Start date and End date request type fields are set to mandatory in order to schedule the assessment. For more information, see Customizing request type fields (main document) and Customizing request type fields - End date, end date (realized), start date, and start date (realized).
- The Start time and End time fields should be used in order to schedule the assessment. For more information, see Customizing request type fields (main document) and Customizing request type fields - End time, end time (realized), start time, and start time (realized).
- The Person field is set to mandatory so that you can link a person who is scheduled to execute the assessment. For more information, see Customizing request type fields (main document) and Customizing request type fields - Person.
- The Document field is useful for linking a document to the request to explain the assessment.
Create a request type to store the answers entered by a person when executing an assessment. Each request type can only be used with one type of assessment. Each answer entered by the person will automatically generate a request using this request type. The request type should meet the following criteria:
- It should not have any workflow step at all. For more information, see Creating and modifying request types - Flow tab.
- It should be set to approve the request automatically when no approver is defined. For more information, see Creating and modifying request types - Flow tab.
- The Person field is set to mandatory so that you can link a person who will execute the assessment. For more information, see Customizing request type fields (main document) and Customizing request type fields - Person.
- The Private check box should be used so that all answers can be created as private requests. For more information, see Customizing request type fields (main document) and Customizing request type fields - Private.
- The Item 1 and Item 2 fields are set to mandatory in order to store the test and the question items, respectively. For example, you can label the fields as Test and Question, respectively. For more information, see Customizing request type fields (main document) and Customizing request type fields - Item 1 and Item 2.
- The Start date and End date are set to mandatory in order to record the date when the test starts and ends. For more information, see Customizing request type fields (main document) and Customizing request type fields - End date, end date (realized), start date, and start date (realized).
- The Start time and End time should be used in order to record the time when the user starts and ends the test. For more information, see Customizing request type fields (main document) and Customizing request type fields - End time, end time (realized), start time, and start time (realized).
- The Amount and Amount (Realized) fields should be used. The planned amount will contain the maximum possible score for each question whereas the realized amount will contain the score of the answer given by the user. You can label the fields as Maximum score and Actual score, respectively. For more information, see Customizing request type fields (main document) and Customizing request type fields - Amount and amount (realized).

Step 1: Define the settings for an assessment

You have to define the settings for a test or poll and quality analysis at Modules ? Workflow ? Setup ? Assessment ? Settings – Test / Poll or Modules ? Workflow ? Setup ? Assessment ? Settings – Quality analysis, respectively. For more information, see Setting up tests and polls and Settings up quality analysis.

Step 2: Design the assessment

You have to design an assessment before you can execute it. The design stages are described below:

Create an assessment at Modules ? Workflow ? Setup ? Assessment ? List. For more information, see Creating and modifying tests, polls, and quality analysis.
Create an answer template at Modules ? Workflow ? Setup ? Assessment ? Answer: Templates. For more information, see Creating and modifying answer templates for tests, polls, and quality analysis.
Create questions at Modules ? Workflow ? Setup ? Assessment ? Questions. For more information, see Creating and modifying questions for tests, polls and quality analysis.

Step 3: Plan the assessment

You have to plan or schedule an assessment using the appropriate request type as described in the Preliminary section before a person can execute it, as described below:

Create a new request at Modules ? Workflow ? Entry ? Requests ? Requests: New using the appropriate request type. For more information, see Creating and modifying requests.
Type or select the assessment item. This information is mandatory.
At Start date and End date, type or select the planned start date and end date of the assessment. This information is mandatory.
At Start time and End time, type or select the planned start time and end time of the assessment. This information is optional.
At Document, type or select a document that explains the quality analysis. You can also provide the link to execute the assessment. This information is optional.

Step 4: Execute an assessment

You have to schedule an assessment before a person can execute it. Only people that have the corresponding assessment planning request can execute this assessment. A person can execute an assessment at the following menu paths:

Go to Modules ? Workflow ? Setup ? Assessment ? Execute, and then click the hyperlinked description of the assessment. For more information, see Executing tests, polls, and quality analysis.
Click Requests at the left menu, then click the corresponding assessment planning request type. Next, click the hyperlinked description of the assessment. For more information, see Creating and modifying requests and Executing tests, polls, and quality analysis.
If you are the owner of the item linked to an assessment or a member of the corresponding project, go to Modules ? Workflow ? Setup ? Assessment ? Questions, and then click Execute. For more information, see Overview of questions for tests, polls, and quality analysis.

Step 5: Analyzing an assessment

After a person has executed an assessment, you can analyze the results at the Modules ? Workflow ? Reports ? Assessment ? Scores, Modules ? Workflow ? Reports ? Assessment ? Pivot analysis, and Modules ? HRM ? Reports ? Miscellaneous ? Test: Scores menu paths. For more information, see Overview of assessment scores, Pivot analysis for assessment, and Viewing test scores.