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Reviewing Questionnaires

amber britton
  • Updated

In this article:

    Atlas makes it easy to review questionnaires and see progress before a questionnaire is completed.

    Review a Questionnaire in Progress 

    • Select a questionnaire that is in progress in the “In Progress” section. Any updates to the questionnaire will show up in red on the dashboard. AtlasREview1.png
    • Once in the questionnaire, Atlas shows you how many questions have been answered in each section. AtlasReview2.png

    Request access to answers

    • If the responder chose not to share responses until it is complete, the questionnaire would not be available for review yet, and you will see the following message: AtlasREview3.png
    • If you want to get access to the responses before the questionnaire is submitted, you can ask the vendor for access in the top section of the questionnaire. AtlasReview4.png

    Details and validation score

    • The Details button at the top provides a quick overview of the status of the questionnaire. AtlasReview5.png

    Validation score for the questionnaire, calculated by weighing responses that indicate positive security controls to increase the score, and responses that show negative responses decrease the score. You see the validation score from the moment you have access to the answers. Atlas calculates the validation score since at least 10% of questions are answered. You can specify custom validation for your template by using the Excel template.

     

    Message for receiver

    • Leave a Message or Attach a File for Receiver - to communicate directly within the questionnaire to the receiver click on (v).  To add an attachment click Add Attachment. This will help you to explain to the receiver instruction on high-level. AtlasReview6.pngAtlasReview7.png

    Review a Submitted Questionnaire

    Senders will receive an email when a questionnaire is submitted and submitted questionnaires will appear under “Ready for Review” in the Sender dashboard. 

    • For every section you can see: 
      • The number of questions answered
      • The Review status as Pending, Flagged or Done

    AtlasReview8.png

    • Opening each section allows you to see the status and response to individual questions. This includes: 
      • Answers
      • Comments
      • Attachments
      • Messages
      • History (since the receiver has enabled review, or since the receiver submitted the questionnaire for the first time)
      • SecurityScorecard Data

    AtlasREview9.png

    • To the right of the Filters button,  the Toggle all button provides a drop-down menu of the options that appear on the right-hand side of each question: attachments, messages, and SecurityScorecard data. By selecting one of the options, Atlas will update the questionnaire view to show that toggle option to the right of each question.
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    • The progress bar at the bottom of the page shows the number of questions answered in the questionnaire. 

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    Filters

    Filters make it easy to search through questions in a pending questionnaire. In the questionnaire, select the Filters button. Click on the checkboxes to select or deselect the filters you want. Sections are showing how many questions are shown and the rest is filtered out. All info questions stay even when the filter applies. You can filter on:

      • Question states
        • unanswered, answered
        • required
        • yes, no, n/a answers
      • Related information
        • messages
        • SecurityScorecard data
        • attachments
      • New issues
        • new messages
        • updated SecurityScorecard data
        • new attachments
        • new answers 
      • Review states - pending, flagged, done

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    Question flags

    The review state for each question defaults to pending. This can be modified with the following statuses:  

      1. Flagged for each question that you reviewed but want to go back to
      2. Done for questions where the review is complete

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    Message

    The message button can be used to leave a message for a particular question. You can use this to clarify with the recipient what you expect, ask them for attaching evidence or longer answer when sending a questionnaire back for updates, explain here instructions if the recipient needs help, etc.

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    SecurityScorecard data

    Use the mapped SecurityScorecard data to check the validity of the response provided by the Vendor. SecurityScorecard data are visible once you have access to the answers. Atlas is updating the SecurityScorecard data automatically and shows a notification when new SecurityScorecard data are loaded, or if the grade is updated. Please note that it might take a few minutes until the SecurityScorecard data appear for a newly sent questionnaire. 

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    Instructions for Reviewers

    Unify the reviewing process by adding Instructions for Reviewers into the Excel template when you are creating a custom template. You can instruct your colleagues on how to do the review, what to be careful about, what actions to take etc.

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    History

    The History button provides a record of activity on the questionnaire in progress. 

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    Report findings

    Write down Reports on risks you find during the review. You can add private notes here where you can document your risk findings and plans on how to handle these risks. Reports are visible only to the sender. In case you would like to save the report externally or share it with the recipient, you can download the reports as CSV or PDF.

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    Download

    The Download button downloads all questions and responses in CSV format together with attachments, as a zip file. 

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    Finish reviewing

    At the bottom of the questionnaire, Senders have the option to send back the questionnaire to the organization for completion if there are some questions that need to be elaborated or Accept/Close the questionnaire once the review is complete and there are no follow-ups needed. 

    AtlasReview21.png

    Invite collaborators to help you with reviewing 

    Questionnaire reviewers can invite users outside of their organization to collaborate in reviewing a questionnaire with the collaboration link. The invitee will have the same roles as the person who invited them.

    1. Hover and click on the Collaboration link either from the Send questionnaire page or within the questionnaire itself on the top right-hand corner AtlasReview22.png
    2. When clicking on the Collaboration link, you can copy the URL link or invite people within the modal 
    3. You will see who has been invited and who has access to reviewing this questionnaire only. You can revoke access for the external collaborators.

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