Page 132 - The Handbook for Quality Management a Complete Guide to Operational Excellence

118 I n t e g r a t e d P l a n n i n g U n d e r s t a n d i n g C u s t o m e r E x p e c t a t i o n s a n d N e e d s 119

Guidelines for Developing Questions
The axiom that underlies the guidelines shown below is that the question
writer(s) must be thoroughly familiar with the respondent group and
must understand the subject matter from the perspective of the respon-
dent group. This is often problematic for the quality professional when
the respondent group is the customer; methods for dealing with this situ-
ation are discussed below. There are eight basic guidelines for writing
good questions:
1. Ask questions in a format that is appropriate to the questions’
purpose and the information required.
2. Make sure the questions are relevant, proper, and qualified as
needed.

3. Write clear, concise questions at the respondent’s language level.
4. Give the respondent a chance to answer by providing a
comprehensive list of relevant, mutually exclusive responses from
which to choose.
5. Ask unbiased questions by using appropriate formats and item
constructions and by presenting all important factors in the proper
sequence.
6. Get unbiased answers by anticipating and accounting for various
respondent tendencies.
7. Quantify the response measures where possible.

8. Provide a logical and unbiased line of inquiry to keep the reader’s
attention and make the response task easier.

The above guidelines apply to the form of the question. Using the criti-
cal incident technique to develop good question content is described
below.

Response Types
There are several commonly used types of survey responses.
• Open-ended questions. These are questions that allow the respondents
to frame their own response without any restrictions placed on the
response. The primary advantage is that such questions are easy to
form and ask using natural language, even if the question writer
has little knowledge of the subject matter. Unfortunately, there are
many problems with analyzing the answers received to this type
of question. This type of question is most useful in determining the
scope and content of the survey, not in producing results for
analysis or process improvement.

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