Tips on Creating a Plan for Survey Project
Questions to Ask Before a Survey Project
Surveys should be well thought out and planned. Goals should be delineated. This is why successful organizations always ask themselves the following questions before moving into a survey project:
- What are you looking to learn?
- How much time will it take?
- What will be the costs?
There are various types of surveys and their scopes are dependent on the end goals. So, there are bound to be many inter-related issues. But all survey plans should take into account six key areas:
- Value of Survey
- Cost of Survey
- Project Definition
- Setting the Audience
- Selecting the Project Team
- Deciding Timeline of Project
How to Plan for Survey Value?
Understanding the survey value is the first step in survey project planning. Organizations must understand the importance and scope of the survey. They should know the benefits of such data accumulation campaign to their core work. When calculating for the value of your project always take into account the below given three factors:
- Define the decisions that you need to make
- Costs that would be incurred if those decisions went wrong
- Level of uncertainty the survey project can reduce
The next big step in survey project planning is calculating your costs. Many businesses find they have exceeded the budget only after the survey is underway. So, a planned approach will keep you in good stead. If you want a quality survey it will never come cheap, though there are methods that are economical over others. Apart from the cost of resource time there are three different types of costs that you will incur, such as:
- Cost of creating the survey infrastructure
- Money needed for inviting the respondents and encouraging them for the survey participation
- Costs that would go into data entry and later analysis
This is the stage when the elements of a survey have to be finalized. You have to decide on the measurable objectives and set standards for the survey. This stage will help you use information for future surveys. An example of objective statement for a Survey could be:
Measuring the visitors to a website within the next week and to see how the online advertising campaign is bringing target audiences.
When you are calculating the time always include the time that will be taken in inviting respondents, gathering data, entering the data and finally analyzing the results. Each of these steps is affected by the way you conduct your survey. The time taken for email surveys will be much higher than telephonic surveys purely because of the waiting times. The next decision is regarding inviting the respondents. There are plenty of mediums to invite such as emails, online advertising or website links. Select the option that you are comfortable with.If you want to conduct the survey internally then there is need to identify the resources. The team you select will largely depend on the kind of survey you are planning. A few key internal resources are needed for any type of survey, such as:
- Human Resources
- Market Research
- IT Support
To set a project timeline you have to get back to the drawing board. List all the tasks that are involved and their specific order of completion. Set a logical timeline for each of the survey tasks and then assign them to personnel. After assigning the tasks keep a note of their start dates. Maintain control over your survey as it moves along. Ask for detailed time sheets from all the involved resources.
This was a list of activities that go into a successful survey project planning. Though the process seems long, yet it is essential if you want to reach the objectives with your survey.