Six stages. None of them optional.
The method is deliberately unglamorous. Each stage produces a document you can inspect, so that quality is something you can see rather than something you are asked to trust.
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Specification Review
The questionnaire is read as a programmer must read it: every condition, every base, every exception. Ambiguities are raised as a numbered query log and resolved before build.
Deliverable Query log and signed-off specification
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Logic Architecture
Complex routing, quotas, randomisation and piping are designed on paper before they are built in code, when structural mistakes are cheapest to correct.
Deliverable Logic architecture note (complex studies)
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Build
Programmed to documented house conventions, so that any qualified programmer, including yours, can read, test and maintain the instrument.
Deliverable Test link and build notes
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Independent Audit
An external audit firm tests every path against a written plan, including the paths respondents are not supposed to be able to take. It is paid for each defect it finds, so its incentive is to find them.
Deliverable Audit report and recorded test results
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Soft Launch Review
Early completes are examined for routing, quota behaviour and data integrity before full field is released. Soft launch confirms verification; it never replaces it.
Deliverable Soft launch data check
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Data Delivery
Data is reconciled to the questionnaire, documented and released together with the full change log for the engagement.
Deliverable Data file, data map and change log
Next Pre-Field Checklist
Written Scoping
Send the questionnaire. Receive a written scope.
A written scope and a fixed quote, with the main risks flagged, within two business days.