How to answer an assessment/questionnaire

Whether you've received a link by email or you're working through a questionnaire inside DPMS, this guide walks you through every step of opening, completing, and submitting an assessment — from the welcome screen to the final section.

Assessments in DPMS are structured questionnaires sent to vendors, internal teams, or any other respondent whose answers feed into your organisation's compliance and data-protection picture. You might be an external supplier who received a link by email, an internal colleague who was asked to complete a vendor evaluation, or a DPMS user working through a questionnaire assigned to you. Regardless of how you arrived, the experience follows the same pattern: you open the questionnaire, work through it section by section, save your progress along the way, and submit when you're done. This article explains exactly how to do all of that.

How to open it

External respondents (received a link by email)
Click the link in the email you received. It takes you directly to the respondent portal — a clean, public-facing page that does not require a DPMS login. The URL looks like /portal/questionnaire/[unique-token].

Internal DPMS users

In the left sidebar, click Assessments.
Find the assessment you need to answer and click its name.
In the left-side tab menu, click Responses, then open your assigned response — or navigate directly to the questionnaire view at /assessments/{id}/respond.

Tip: If you are an internal user and cannot see the Responses tab or the questionnaire view, ask your DPO or IT administrator to check your access permissions for that assessment.

What you see

External portal (welcome page)
When the link opens, you land on a welcome screen showing the questionnaire title, a short description if the DPO provided one, and a progress indicator showing how many sections are in the questionnaire. A prominent Start (or Begin) button sits in the centre. Nothing has been recorded yet — you can read this page as long as you need before committing.

Inside a section
Once you click Start, the first section loads. The screen divides into two areas: a left-side navigation panel listing every section by name, and a main content area on the right where the actual questions appear. At the bottom of the page you'll always find two action buttons: Save Draft and Next Section. A small asterisk (*) marks any question that is required before you can move on.

Internal DPMS view
If you're answering from inside DPMS, you see the same section layout but with additional context: a breadcrumb trail at the top (Assessments › [Assessment Name] › Respond), a status indicator showing whether the assessment is active or in review, and two small buttons in the top-right corner — a clock icon that opens the Activity Log and an ellipsis icon that opens additional options.

Working with this screen

Starting a questionnaire for the first time

When you first open the portal link or the internal questionnaire view, you are on the welcome/landing page. Take a moment to read the title and any introductory text — it usually explains the purpose of the questionnaire and who to contact if you have questions.

Click Start (external portal) or navigate to the first section (internal view). The left-side section panel shows you exactly where you are and how many sections remain. Each section name is clickable, so you can jump ahead to review the structure before you begin — though you may need to complete earlier sections before saving answers in later ones, depending on how the assessment was configured.

Work through the questions in the main area. DPMS supports several question types:

Free-text boxes — type your answer directly.
Yes / No choices — click the appropriate option.
File upload — click the upload area to attach supporting documents.
Dropdown or single-select — pick one option from a list.
Multi-select — choose one or more options.

Required questions are marked with a red asterisk. You cannot move to the next section until all required fields in the current section have an answer.

Saving your progress

You don't need to complete the entire questionnaire in one sitting. Click Save Draft at the bottom of any section at any time. DPMS saves everything you've entered so far without submitting it — the questionnaire remains open for you to continue later.

Heads up: Save Draft saves the current section only. If you've typed something in a field but haven't clicked Save Draft, that content will be lost if you close the browser tab. Get into the habit of clicking Save Draft before navigating away.

When you return via the original link (external portal) or log back in (internal users), DPMS will bring you back to where you left off.

Answering conditional (branching) questions

Some questionnaires include follow-up questions that only appear after a specific answer is selected. For example, if you answer "Yes" to "Does your organisation process personal data?", a second question might immediately appear asking for more detail about the categories of data involved.

This branching behaviour is built in — you don't need to do anything special. Simply answer the question that appears and the questionnaire will adapt. If you later change your answer to the triggering question, the follow-up question will disappear (and any answer you entered there will be cleared), so make sure you're happy with your initial answer before moving on.

Moving between sections

Use the Next Section button at the bottom of the page to advance. You can also click any section name in the left-side navigation panel to jump directly to it. The panel shows which sections you have already saved (they typically appear with a different visual state) and which are still outstanding.

If you need to revisit a completed section to correct something, click its name in the left panel, make your changes, and click Save Draft again before moving on.

Submitting the questionnaire

Once you have answered all required questions in every section, a Submit button becomes available (in some configurations this appears at the end of the last section, in others it appears as a Submit option in the footer). Clicking Submit sends your completed responses to the assessment owner for review.

Heads up: Submission is final. Once you click Submit, your answers are locked and sent to the reviewing team. If you realise you need to correct something after submitting, contact the person who sent you the questionnaire — they can reopen it for you.

If the assessment uses Progressive Rolling Review mode, you can submit individual sections as you complete them rather than waiting until the entire questionnaire is done. The Submit or Submit Section button appears at the section level. In All at Once mode, nothing is sent until every section is complete and you click the final Submit.

Working with the internal DPMS view

If you are a DPMS user answering from inside the application (at /assessments/{id}/respond), you have a few extra tools available:

Activity Log (clock icon, top-right): Click this to see a timeline of every change made to the assessment — useful if you want to check when a deadline was updated or who last edited a setting.
Options menu (ellipsis icon, top-right): Provides additional actions such as sharing options, depending on your permissions.
Breadcrumb navigation: The breadcrumbs at the top let you jump back to the full Assessments list at any time without losing your saved progress.

The section navigation on the left works the same way as the external portal. All your saved answers are visible immediately when you open a section, so you can pick up exactly where you left off.

Field reference

The exact fields you see depend on the questionnaire template your organisation has designed, but the following standard controls appear on every assessment:

Free-text answer box — Type your response. There is usually no character limit unless the question specifies one. For longer answers, consider drafting in a word processor and pasting in.
Yes / No toggle — Click Yes or No. Required fields must have a selection before you can proceed.
File upload area — Click or drag a file into the upload zone. Accepted file types and size limits are shown next to the field. Uploaded files are stored securely and visible only to the review team.
Dropdown / single-select — Click the field to open the list, then click your choice. Only one option can be selected.
Multi-select — Click the field and choose one or more items. Each chosen item appears as a tag inside the field; click the × on a tag to remove it.
Date picker — Click the field to open a calendar. Navigate months with the arrows and click a date to select it.

Required fields are marked with a red asterisk (*). Leaving a required field empty and clicking Next Section will show a validation error highlighting the missing fields — no data is lost, and you simply need to fill in the highlighted fields before proceeding.

How this connects to the rest of DPMS

Once you submit your answers, they flow into the assessment owner's view in DPMS. The DPO or compliance officer responsible for the assessment will see your submission in the Responses tab and can open it for review. Depending on how the assessment is configured, a notification email may be sent automatically to the reviewer team the moment you submit.

Your answers also contribute to the Answers & Results screen, where the reviewing team can compare responses across all respondents, track how many answers are still pending review, and check maturity scores against the organisation's targets.

If a reviewer requests a correction or asks you to resubmit a section, you'll typically receive another email with a new link (or the same link, now unlocked). The process then repeats for the affected section only — you won't need to redo the entire questionnaire.

Tips & common pitfalls

Tip: Always click Save Draft before closing your browser or switching tabs. DPMS does not auto-save in real time, and unsaved answers in the current section will be lost if you navigate away without saving.

Tip: If a question seems to have disappeared, check whether you changed the answer to an earlier question — some questions only appear based on your previous answers (conditional logic). Scroll up or re-read the section to see if anything has changed.

Don't submit until you're ready. Review every section using the left-side navigation before clicking the final Submit. Once submitted, you cannot edit your answers without the assessment owner reopening the questionnaire for you.
File uploads can take a moment. Large files may take a few seconds to upload. Wait until you see a confirmation (a file name or a tick icon) before clicking Save Draft or Next Section — otherwise the file may not be attached.
The link is unique to you. The portal link in your email is personalised. Do not forward it to a colleague to fill in on your behalf, as the response will be recorded under your name. If someone else should complete the questionnaire, ask the assessment owner to add them as a separate recipient.
Session timeout on the external portal. If you leave the portal open without activity for an extended period, your session may expire. Your saved drafts are preserved, but you may need to re-open the original link to continue.
Multiple sections, one submission. In Progressive Rolling Review mode, submitting a section does not mean you're done — other sections may still be outstanding. Check the left navigation panel to make sure all sections show as complete before assuming your work is finished.