Create and evaluate assessments

Overview

At any stage of data protection compliance, it is helpful to evaluate your current status and identify areas for improvement. Assessments in data protection management can serve various purposes, including:

Data protection risk assessments
Internal compliance reviews
Data Protection Impact Assessments (DPIA)
Security assessments
Training needs assessments
Reviewing the effectiveness of data protection measures
Vendor evaluations

Through assessments, companies can improve their data protection practices, ensure compliance with legal requirements, and minimize the risk of data breaches.

Assessments consist of questionnaires on specific topics to be evaluated. These questionnaires are sent to one or more responsible persons tasked with answering them.

The overview page differentiates between the tabs All, Response Evaluation, Overdue, Waiting Response, Passed, and Failed, subdividing your current assessments into states. You can also display an overview of the permalinks by clicking on the switch in the top right corner.

Clicking on an existing assessment will take you to its management page. If you wish to create a new assessment, click the Create button.

Creating Assessments

You can create an assessment, generate a permalink, or download a shared assessment from your organization. This guide focuses on the manual creation of assessments and permalinks. For more information about downloading, refer to the relevant guide.

First, enter the general information, such as:

Responsible person
Assessment status
Priority
Assessment name

Optionally, you can classify the assessment using an attribute.

Next, select the templates (questionnaires) for the assessment. Set a deadline by which the questionnaires must be completed. Finally, specify whether a report should be shown to the responder.

Click Next to proceed.

Maturity Goals

The Maturity Goals tab is only active if maturity goals are requested in the selected questionnaire.

Here, you can set maturity goals for the entire questionnaire, by section, or for each question individually.

While answering the questions, respondents will assess maturity levels, ranging from Incomplete to Optimized. Later, these responses can be compared with the predefined goals.

Set goals realistically and effectively to evaluate your data protection processes accurately and make progress measurable.

Click Next to proceed.

Recipients and Notification

On this page, you can define the recipients of the questionnaires. Follow these steps:

Click Add Audience to select groups, then click Add to list.
You can add individual recipients by typing an email address into the corresponding field and pressing Enter.

You can select one or more Notification Workflows from the dropdown menu for each person or group. Additionally, you can set the notification language.

Click Send when you are finished.

Creating a Permalink

A permanent link generates a new assessment each time it is opened. It can be shared via an intranet or email to gather multiple responses quickly.

To create a permalink, follow these steps:

Enter the general information for the assessment.
Select at least one method to identify the responding person. This can be done through email registration or account login.
Decide whether the permalink should expire after a certain period.
Set the amount of responders.
Set a deadline for completing the assessment.
Specify whether a report should be shown to the recipient.
Choose the priority level and click Next.

Setting maturity goals follows the process described earlier. On the next page, you can configure default notifications for all respondents by notification workflows and selecting the notification language.

Once all settings are configured, click Send. The permalink is now ready to use and can be shared as needed.

Managing Assessments

General

Click on an assessment to view its general information. You will also see a URL that allows you to open the questionnaire.

Click Edit to modify details. This will take you to the page you are already familiar with from the creation process. At the bottom, you can activate or deactivate the assessment. By default, all assessments are active. However, deactivation might be helpful if the assessment is temporarily not in use.

As with most elements, you can add notes by clicking the Notes button on the right or Manage Access by clicking the three horizontal dots in the top-right corner.

Notification Status

The Notification Status tab allows you to track the status of all notifications.

Answers

The Answers tab displays all responses to the assessment. Here, you can see the template used and the number of questions answered and approved.

Clicking on a response takes you to the Reviewer Panel, where you can further review and manage the answers.

Evaluating assessments

Regardless of whether the questionnaire is fully completed, you can evaluate the answers provided so far at any time.

In the Reviewer Panel, you will see all the answers awaiting to be reviewed in the left column, all answers awaiting to be resubmitted in the middle, and the reviewed answers will be displayed on the right.

Evaluating Answers

Click on an answer in the left column to view the question and the given answer. Below the answer, you will see the options to approve or decline. For questions with multiple answers, you can evaluate each answer separately.
If maturity levels have been queried, you can compare them with the set goals and approve or decline them.
On the right, you will see any comments from the responder. You can also add a comment, for example, to justify a declined answer.
Additionally, you can link the question to a specific item, such as a ROPA, by selecting the corresponding option in the Data Mapping section.
For some questions, uploading evidence documents may be required or optional. These documents will be displayed below the answer. You can also upload your own documents to support or supplement your evaluation.
Click Save to move to the next question.

Tip: Instead of approving each question individually, you can go through all the questions using the arrow and then click Approve All. This action will apply to all remaining questions without modifying previously declined answers. Alternatively, you can use the Decline All function.

You can always click the blue bar on the right to get an overview or return to the Reviewer Panel during the evaluation process. Once you have reviewed all answers, you will be automatically redirected to the Reviewer Panel.

Resubmission

Declined answers will now appear in the middle column of the Reviewer Panel. If you click Resubmit All, the questions will be sent back to the responder so they can revise their answers. If a resubmitted question has been answered again, you can view the previous answer by moving the icon on the timeline.

Modify Evaluation

You can reopen previously reviewed answers if you wish to adjust your evaluation. To do so, click on the answer in the right column and then click Reopen at the top right to modify your evaluation.