Versions and Scoring

An assessment instrument changes over time, but an assessment completed last year must still mean what it meant then. Instruments are therefore versioned: a published version is fixed, each assessment records the version it was answered against, and its scores and band are frozen when it is completed.

Where to find it

Architect Panel → Forms:

Assessment Instruments — the Version selector, New version, Publish this version and Retire this version

Draft, published, retired

The Version selector lists each version with its number, its state (draft, published or retired) and how many responses it has.

Draft: questions and bands can be added and removed. Drafts cannot be used for real assessments.
Published: fixed. The console shows "This version is published." and offers no editing.
Retired: no longer given to new assessments. Assessments already started on it keep it.

New assessments get the newest published version that is not retired. Publishing version 2 therefore takes over from version 1 straight away, without retiring it.

Changing an instrument

Select the current published version and click New version from this one. This copies its questions and its bands on the total into a new draft.
Make the changes: Remove questions or bands and add new ones.
Clear any red warnings and click Publish this version.
Optionally select the old version and click Retire this version. Retiring the newest version makes the previous published one current again.

Versions cannot be labelled or deleted from the console, and a retired version cannot be un-retired. Keep a note elsewhere of why each version changed.

How a score is worked out

Each answer scores: a choice scores its option's score; yes scores 1 and no scores 0; a number scores itself; free text scores 0.
Weights multiply: each answer's score is multiplied by its question's weight and added to the total. Questions with a score key also add to that sub-score.
Unanswered questions are left out of both the score and the highest possible score.
The highest possible score is the sum of each choice question's highest option score, plus 1 for each yes-or-no question. Number questions have no ceiling, which the heading points out.
Bands: the total is placed in the band whose range contains it. If no band matches, the band is left blank.
Required questions must be answered before completion: "These questions must be answered first:" followed by their keys.

There is no reverse-scoring switch: give the options reversed scores instead. Answer scores are stored when answered, and the totals and band are stored when the assessment is completed, so publishing a new version never changes a completed result. A completed assessment cannot be changed or reopened.

What goes wrong and how to tell

Publish does nothing: a red warning remains, the version has no questions, or it is already published. The console does not display refusal messages, so read the warnings on the page.
Scores look low against the bands: options that could not be read count as 0, which lowers the highest possible score. Check every choice question's options.
Sub-score bands vanished from a new version: only bands on the total are copied.
Fixed data edited elsewhere: the Instrument Items and Instrument Bands datastores are visible under Data → Datastores, and editing them there bypasses the protection on published versions. Do not.

Worked example

A tenancy support instrument at version 1 bands 0 to 8 as Standard. After a review, the team wants 0 to 6. The architect selects v1, clicks New version from this one, removes the Standard and Enhanced bands, adds Standard 0 to 6 and Enhanced 6 to 16, and publishes v2. New assessments use v2 from that moment. A tenancy assessed last spring still shows v1 and Standard on its Assessments tab, because its band was frozen when it was completed.

Recommendations

Change by new version, never by editing data directly.
Retire deliberately, only when you want the previous version back or nothing at all.
Record the reason for each version outside the platform.
Check the highest possible score after every change to the questions.