Summary

The electronic questionnaire can be considered as a complete software system, with a list of requirements the software must meet. This determines the approach to how the questionnaire is designed and tested. One dimension of this approach concerns the questionnaire's objective and its conceptual layer; the other one comprises the technical application of information and software system tools. Thanks to technological development, some aspects of the processing stage of the survey can be performed during earlier stages, such as data collection. The term "computer-assisted" implicates the design stage and the data collection phase. This term is also related to another aspect of the design, namely the question of who is to administer the software application at the data entry stage. Deciding whether the respondent is to be the user or the interviewer influences the preparatory stages of the questionnaire. Also, a successful completion of online forms depends on access to the public network, while the respondent must be equipped with a local computer system. Maintenance of the software is the task of the surveying agency.

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