Scoring Questionnaires (With Video)

This video shows you how to score Questionnaires in Bonfire, as well as some neat tips and tricks to streamline your scoring process.

Article Contents:

• Options for Scoring your Questionnaire
• Scoring Overview
• Consensus Scoring Questionnaires
• Viewing Questionnaire Reports

Options for Scoring your Questionnaire

Questionnaires may be scored using Rated Input criteria or using a predefined Rated Scale. All of the Questions within a Question Set will be scored using the same scoring methodology. 

Scoring with Input Criteria

Scoring using the Rated Input criteria allows the Reviewer to type in a score between 0 and the point value of the question that you set (eg. _/X pts). 

If you assigned the question a point value of 10, then the Review will input a score out of 10:

Scoring with Scale Criteria

Scoring using the Scale criteria allows the Reviewer to score a whole number within a predetermined range (ex. 0-10). Using the Evaluator's rating, Bonfire then calculates the corresponding number of points allotted for that question given its point value that you have assigned. 

If one of your questions is to be scored between 0-10, then the Reviewer will choose a number on the scale of 1-10:

Scoring Overview

Scoring Questionnaires in Bonfire is different from scoring your typical criteria, as vendor responses are displayed side-by-side in a Questionnaire format. To score a Questionnaire, select the Project you wish to evaluate from the Projects Dashboard:

Once you are in the Project, select the Submissions page. On this page you will see all of your vendor submissions and their corresponding Scorecards:

Clicking one of these Scorecard buttons will activate a pop-up with all of the Question Sets and other Requested Information. Clicking into any one of the Question Sets will allow you to see the amount of questions within the set, their weighting in points, your scoring progress, and a link to the actual Questionnaire.

Once you select that link, you will be brought to the Questionnaire. Vendors are displayed in the columns, and the questions are displayed in the rows.

The Open drop-down menu that accompanies each Vendor contains any supporting documentation that has been submitted along with the Questionnaire by that Vendor. Selecting any of these documents will allow you to view them.

The progress bar displayed with each Vendor shows you how far along you are in scoring that particular Vendor's responses. The total points counter next to the progress bar shows you how many points you have allocated to the Vendor so far.

As you can see, we are in the Compliance and Location Question Set. If you want to view a different Question Set or see all Questions, the Filter option at the bottom of the screen allows you to filter your view with a variety of options. These include All Questions, All Scorable Questions, All Unscored Questions, and all the individual Questions Sets and Subsets.

Should you want to filter further, you can type a keyword into the search bar. Any Questions containing your keyword will be displayed.

To begin scoring the responses, click on the response you wish to score. It will become highlighted in yellow and the scoring controls will appear at the bottom of the screen.

As this Question is out of 5, I will enter a score between 0 and 5. I can also enter a comment to accompany my score. Comments can be either required or optional, depending on how the Project Owner has set them up. You will notice that once I have entered my score, the scoring total and progress bar under the Vendor name will update as well.

Your arrow keys can be used to move within the Questionnaire. To continue scoring that same Vendor, you can use the up or down arrow keys. If you want to score the other Vendors responses for the same question, you can use the side-to-side keys.

Another feature of Questionnaires on Bonfire is the small map in the bottom left-hand corner. The crosshairs show exactly where you are in the Questionnaire, and follow you as you move throughout the Questionnaire.

If you filter to a view with fewer Questions, the map will show a blue bar for wherever you are within the Questionnaire. This is very helpful because as you enter in a score for a question, that blue bar will turn green, indicating that the question is scored and complete. As you complete your scoring, the map will slowly turn green.

If a Vendor response is too long to read in the viewing box, you can enter Focus Mode. To enter Focus Mode, you can either double-click on the response, or click on the response once and then hit the Spacebar on your keyboard. Once in Focus Mode, you can see the Question, the Question Set, the Question Subset, and any Scoring Instructions the Project Owner might have provided. You can see the Vendor Response and the Response Comment. You can move between Responses with your arrow keys, just as you did in the regular view. To exit Focus Mode, simply press the ESC key on your keyboard.

Consensus Scoring within Questionnaires

When an Evaluation is complete, procurement teams may have to run a consensus meeting to make sure the Evaluation team is in agreement on their scoring. The Questionnaires module has a special feature called Consensus Scoring that allows you to quickly compare the scores of all your Reviewers on each individual question. Consensus Scoring allows you to enter a single score that will override the average and all other scores entered for that particular criteria. For more information on to how to use this feature, please see our article Consensus Scoring Questionnaires.

NOTE: Consensus Scoring is a feature that is not available by default. Please contact Bonfire Support to have this feature enabled. Once enabled for the portal, you can then choose to apply it on a project-to-project basis.

Viewing Questionnaire Reports

Finally, a report can be generated by heading to the Reporting section, toggling Questionnaire Responses and Scores on, and clicking Download. This report will summarize all the Vendor responses and the corresponding scores that the evaluators have assigned.