Checklist: Preparing for a Survey Pilot

1. Preparing for a Survey Pilot

All stages

[] Have you identified a sufficient number of qualified interviewers?

[] Have you trained the interviewers on the survey instrument?

[] Have you identified a comparable area and population for the pilot?

[] Have you secured all approvals / letters of support needed in your context?

[] Has someone contacted the local leaders in the pilot area to inform them of planned survey activity?

[] Will the team be staying overnight in the pilot area? If so, do you have necessary permissions to travel (from government, World Bank, etc)?

[] Has someone taken care of the logistics (e.g. car rentals, meals or per diem for interviewers)?

[] Do you have a venue reserved for training the interviewers?

Pre-Pilot

[] Do you have a set protocol for identifying participants in focus group discussions?

[] Do you have a form prepared for interviewers to record qualitative observations and notes from discussion?

[] Have you tested interviewers’ note-taking abilities during the training and provided feedback on content and handwriting?

[] If you do not speak the local language(s), do you have a tried-and-true research assistant to accompany you to translate?

Content-focused Pilot

[] Is the questionnaire you are piloting fully translated into the local language?

[] Is the instrument formatted for printing? Make sure there are sufficient margins on all pages for taking notes.

[] Did you print enough copies of the instrument for all interviewers and all people accompanying interviews to have a copy for each planned interview?

[] Does the survey instrument include both the research team language and local language (where different)? If not, remember to print out copies in each language as applicable.

[] Do you have access to a printer to print revisions in real time if significant changes are needed?

[] Have you instructed interviewers (or observers) to record the start and end time for each module?

Data-focused Pilot

[] Have you office-tested the final version of the programmed instrument for any bugs, and to ensure that all questions appear as expected and reflect the final translation?

[] Do you have enough tablets for all interviewers and all people accompanying interviews?

[] Have you set up a SurveyCTO server for the pilot? (For DIME members: Remember, no data can be uploaded to the DIME Test server.)

[] Is the name for the pilot form on the server clearly distinguishable from the final survey?

[] Have you assigned a form id unique to the pilot? (to avoid confusing pilot data with final data)

[] Do all team members who need it have log-on information?

[] Is the SurveyCTO Collect app updated to the version of SurveyCTO your server is running? (See the ‘Collect’ tab on your server for instructions.)

[] Best to update your server and app to the latest version of SurveyCTO before starting the pilot.

[] Once you have piloted, avoid updating the app even if a new version is released, to avoid compatibility issues.

[] Are all tablets / phones running the most updated version of their operating system (OS)? (or at a minimum, are they all running exactly the same OS?)

[] Are all tablets / phones set to the correct date and time?

[] Is the pilot-form downloaded and ready-to-go on all tablets?

[] Are all tablets fully charged? Do you have battery packs with you in case any batteries run out?

[] Do you have a couple of paper copies of the survey, for observers to use, and/or as a last resort in case of unsolvable tablet problems?

[] Have you built in time to the field plan to make any required revisions to the programming and re-download the revised forms on all tablets?

[] Have you set up Stata do-files for importing and labeling data?

[] Have you set up a Stata do-file for running high frequency checks?

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This article is part of the topic, Check Lists for Field Coordinators.