Pre-Field Checklist

The WISFIELD Checklist

1. ✓Written specification signed off before programming begins.Changes made during the build are the most common source of untested logic.
2. ✓Independent tester: someone other than the programmer tests the survey.Programmers test what they intended, not what they built.
3. ✓Screener and routing logic spelled out in full, nothing left to interpretation.Implied logic means something different to each person who reads it.
4. ✓Filled-quota behaviour tested: the last complete, the full cell, the overlap.Quota faults appear at the edges, never in the middle.
5. ✓Individual paths walked: every piped text checked where it appears.Piping errors hide on the paths most testers never take.
6. ✓Every test follows a written plan, and its results are kept.Without a written plan, “tested” can be neither checked nor repeated.
7. ✓Late fixes never go live untested.A one-word fix after launch can reroute every respondent who follows.
8. ✓Data verified: map, labels and file match the questionnaire before delivery.A map that differs from the questionnaire breaks the tables, and on a tracker, the trend.