Survey Pilot

The Survey Pilot is a field-test of the questionnaire(s) and all survey protocols.

Read First

• The Pilot is conducted before emunerator training. It is different from the field practice that all enumerators do at the end of training.
• Piloting is not just about the questionnaire. It is also an opportunity to test survey protocols (e.g. respondent selection, replacement, geo-data collection) and learn about relevant logistics.

Guidelines for Survey Pilot

Stages of a Survey Pilot

A complete survey pilot has 3 key stages:

Figure 1: A Complete Survey Pilot Includes 3 Stages

	Stage 1 - Pre-Pilot	Stage 2 - Content-focused Pilot	Stage 3 - Data-focused Pilot
Objective	Answer broad questions about survey design and context through qualitative interviews and focus group discussions.	Refine overall order and structure, wording of specific questions, and translations. Check completeness of answer-choice options, response variance, survey length.	Validate programming, export a sample dataset, check dataset structure and completeness, perform all data quality checks
Output	Early, printable draft, and/or qualitative instruments	A translated, printable, complete draft	A translated, programmed, final draft
Conducted via	Pen-and-Paper	Pen-and-Paper	Tablet/Phone

Are all 3 stages necessary for every survey?
Not necessarily.

• If your survey is a brand new survey instrument, always start with Stage 1, Pre-Pilot.
• If your survey is an adaptation of a well-designed questionnaire from a reliable source in the same country, then you may start with Stage 2, Content-focused pilot.
  If your survey is an adaptation of a survey instrument from a previous data collection for the same project, but significant revisions or additions have been made, then again, start with Stage 2, Content-focused piloting.
• Only in cases where you are piloting a follow-up survey with no major changes from the baseline is it appropriate to skip directly to Stage 3, Data-focused pilot.

Merits of a pen-and-paper pilot for a CAPI survey?

Pen-and-paper pilots are recommended even for CAPI surveys, due to their flexibility in recording answers and qualitative observations. Pen-and-paper pilots are especially useful for:

• Recording open-ended responses (critical for a pilot) more quickly / easily.
• Drawing lines and arrows between questions to suggest restructuring.
• Recording observations and feedback in the margins.
• Making notes of questionnaire wording or translation problems directly in the text.

A good pilot will provide significant inputs to questionnaire design, and lead to significant changes in content and structure. Repeated programming in CAPI software is time-consuming and can create bugs (e.g. if order of questions shifts and all skip codes need to be re-programmed), so it is best done after the questionnaire has been finalized.

Timeline for a survey pilot

Piloting should start 4-6 months before survey launch, the sooner the better. Do not confuse the pilot with field testing during the enumerator training. It typically involves making significant changes to the survey instrument and/or protocols – and should therefore always be made before enumerator training starts. See timeline of survey pilot for details.

What should be tested during the pilot?

A comprehensive pilot should test questionnaire content, questionnaire programming , and all survey protocols.

Who should be involved in a survey pilot?

Typically, survey pilots are done before the survey firm is on-board. The Field Coordinator plays a central role. Ideally other research team members (e.g. the Principal Investigator) should also participate. For details, see survey pilot participants.

How should a survey pilot be structured?

The success of a pilot often depends on logistics. See guidelines on effectively structuring a survey pilot. You should develop a clear pilot protocol for each stage and share with the research team for approval in advance.

Tips and Reminders

• Throughout the questionnaire design process, and discussion with the research team, take notes of what needs to be part of the pilot.
• Take careful notes during the pilot. These deliberations and clarifications will be an important part of the enumerator manual, and discussions at training sessions.
• Do a data-focused pilot for your back-check questionnaire.
• Hire a local "mobilizer" to coordinate with respondents.
• Mobilizers explain the purpose behind conducting the survey and facilitate the process of obtaining consent, particularly in urban areas or settings in which people are particularly busy. This can improve the outcomes of piloting, for instance, by reducing down-time between surveys.(This may not always be consistent with piloting sampling protocols)

DIME's Checklists for Effective Piloting

We recommend using the Checklist: Preparing for a Survey Pilot, Checklist: Refine the Questionnaire (Content) and Checklist: Refine the Questionnaire (Data) as you prepare for, and implement a survey pilot.

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This article is part of the topic Primary Data Collection

Additional Resources

• DIME Analytics’ guidelines on piloting surveys

LSMS e-Learning course on questionnaire design & piloting: http://lsms.adeptanalytics.org/course/Home_eng.html [Requires Flash Plug-in]