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Using weighted questions

Question weights determine how big of an impact a question has on the total vendor risk score. If a question has a weight, the weight is included in the total possible score. For questions without a weight, the weight defaults to 0.

Weights can be set on single-select, multi-select, and open-text questions. Note that for open-text questions, the weight cannot be assessed with an answer score at this time.

Tip

It's recommended that questions have a weight to properly score a questionnaire and assess a vendor's risk level.

What if there is only one weighted question in a questionnaire?

If only 1 out of 10 questions has a weight, Hyperproof includes the weight of that question in the total possible score. Since the other 9 questions are not weighted, no weight for those questions is added into the total possible score.

Question weights overview

  • Default - 0

  • The weight must be a positive integer, e.g. 3. There is no limit to the weight of a question as long as its a positive integer.

  • The score of a weighted question is determined by answer * weight.

    Below is an example of a single-select question with a weight of 20.

    1. Answer A = 1

    2. Answer B = .5

    3. Answer C = 0

      If a vendor answers A, the score is 20/20 (1 * 20).

      If they answer B, the score is 10/20 (.5 * 20).

      If they answer C, the score is 0/20 (0 * 20).

Using weights with a single-select question

The total amount of points received is determined by multiplying the respondent’s cumulative answer score value by the question weight. Note that answer scores must be between 0-1, inclusive—i.e. 0, .5, 1.

Example question one

For the single-select question below, the question weight is set at 3. The respondent chose answer 3, meaning they’ll receive 3 points out of 3 (3 * 1 = 3).

Which department maintains your company’s handbook?

  1. Development (.5)

  2. Legal (.5)

  3. Human Resources (1)

  4. Other (0)

Example question two

For the single-select question below, the question weight is set at 1. The respondent chose answer 1, meaning they’ll receive 0 points (1 * 0 = 0).

What timezone is your company in?

  1. Pacific (0)

  2. Mountain (1)

  3. Eastern (0)

  4. Central European (.5)

Using weights with a multi-select question

The total amount of points received is determined by multiplying the respondent’s answer score value by the question weight. Note that answer scores can be additive up to 1, e.g. .2, .2, .3, .3. An error is shown if the values add up to more than 1.

Example question

For the multi-select question below, the question weight is set at 5. The respondent chose answers 1 and 3, meaning they’ll receive 3.5 points (.5 + .2 = .7), or 70% of 5.

Are resources (e.g. hardware, devices, data, time, personnel, and software) prioritized based on the following dimensions? (Select all that apply)

  1. Classification (.5)

  2. Criticality (.2)

  3. Business value (.2)

  4. Security level (.1)

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