Collecting user feedback

It is possible to collect feedback from the users of a workflow. A workflow author can optionally include a feedback form on one or more steps with customized questions for the step owner to answer at the conclusion of a step. Such feedback can be useful for determining the effectiveness of a workflow design, or collecting user requirements for future enhancements to a workflow. Inclusion of a feedback form is optional; answering the questions in a feedback form can be optional or required, as determined by the workflow author.

The workflows XML schema includes elements to help workflow authors create questions for users. The Workflows task includes functions to allow the workflow owner to prompt users for feedback, and collect the responses into a consolidated document. When all of the required feedback is provided, the workflow owner can send the feedback to the workflow author for evaluation.

How feedback is collected

Collecting feedback from the users of a workflow involves the participation of the following roles:

Workflow author: Workflow author defines feedback questions in the workflow definition file, and designates the questions as optional or required.
Workflow owner: For a workflow that includes feedback questions, the workflow owner is responsible for collecting the feedback. From the Workflows table, the workflow owner can select Feedback to launch actions related to feedback. The workflow owner can display pages to see which steps require feedback, which steps have incomplete feedback, and options for notifying the step owners who need to complete feedback.
Step owner: For a step that includes a feedback form, the step owner is responsible for providing feedback by answering questions about the step. To answer feedback for a step, the step owner selects a step and selects the table action Feedback. Only the step owner can display the feedback page for a step. The Feedback action is disabled for steps that do not contain feedback questions and for others other than the step owner.

When all of the required feedback is provided by step owners, the workflow owner can save the accumulated feedback into a feedback file. On the Generate Feedback Summary page, the workflow owner can create a report of the feedback, which can be sent to the workflow vendor for evaluation.

Schema elements

As the workflow author, you define feedback questions and answers in the workflow definition file.

Example

Figure 1 shows how to define each of the question types in a workflow definition file.

In the example:

itemOne defines a multiple choice question
itemTwo defines an either or choice
itemThree defines a question that accepts a write-in response.

Figure 1. You can define a variety of questions for step owners to answer.

<!-- ================= feedback definitions ================= -->

<feedbackItem name="itemOne">
   <question>How difficult was this step?</question>
   <!--The user must select one answer from the available choices-->
   <answers>
      <singleSelect hasOtherAnswer="true">
      		<lable value="difficult">Very difficult</lable>
			<lable value="moderate">Somewhat difficult</lable>
			<lable value="moderate">Neutral</lable>
			<lable value="moderate">Somewhat easy</lable>
		       <lable value="easy">Very easy</lable>
      </singleSelect>
   </answers>
</feedbackItem>

<feedbackItem name="itemTwo">
   <question>What did you like about this step?</question>
   <!--The user can select more than one of the available choices-->
   <answers>
      <multipleSelect hasOtherAnswer="true">
      	<lable value="simple">Ease of use</lable>
		<lable value="info">Instructions were helpful</lable>
             <lable value="useful">Performed a useful function</lable>
             <lable value="quick">Ran quickly</lable>
      </multipleSelect>
   </answers>
</feedbackItem>

<feedbackItem name="itemThree">
   <question>How would you describe your experience with this step?</question>
   <!--The user supplies a text response (up to 500 characters) -->
   <answers>
		<text/>
   </answers>
</feedbackItem>

The questions defined in Figure 1 can be referenced by the steps in your workflow. Figure 2 shows how the questions defined earlier can be included in the step definitions. Notice the attribute required is included for questions that require an answer from the step owner.

Figure 2. How feedback questions can be included in the steps in your workflow.

<!-- ================= step with feedback questions ================= -->
<step name="StepOne" >
        <title>A step with feedback</title>
        <description>A step with feedback.</description>
        <!--On the feedback tag, the attribute "name" identifies the 
            feedback question. The attribute "required" indicates whether 
            a user response is required or optional. -->
		<feedback name="itemOne" required="true"/>
		<feedback name="itemTwo" required="true"/>
		<feedback name="itemThree" required="true"/>
        <instructions>This step has three questions for you to answer. 
                      All of the questions require a response.</instructions>
        <weight>1</weight>
</step>
⋮
<!-- ================= Another step with feedback questions ================= -->
<step name="StepTwo" >
        <title>Another step with feedback</title>
        <description>Another step with feedback.</description>
        <!--On the feedback tag, the attribute "name" identifies the 
            feedback question. To indicate that a user response is required,
            the attribute "required" is included and set to true. To indicate 
            that a response is optional, you can set required to false or 
            omit this attribute. -->
             <feedback name="itemOne" required="true"/>
		<feedback name="itemThree"/>
        <instructions>This step has two feedback items. itemOne is required, 
                      and itemThree is optional.</instructions>
        <weight>1</weight>    
</step>