The following diagram illustrates all assessment states in the TrustArc Default Workflow, which is automatically pre-selected for all new assessments.
The sections below describe each TrustArc Default Workflow state in detail.
For more information, see Saving & Publishing Assessment to Respondents.
Once published, the system sends email notifications to all respondents and the assessment moves to the Survey state, meaning questions are now being answered by respondents. Answers are auto-saved and can be reviewed at any time by clicking the assessment name in the Assessments list.
Respondents' answers cannot be changed while the assessment is in Survey mode — even if some respondents have already submitted. Changes are only possible once all respondents have submitted. You can, however, add comments and attachments to any question at any time. These become immediately visible to respondents.
While in Survey state, you can create tasks, assign or overwrite risk scores on questions, and change approvers or reassign unsubmitted sections to different respondents. However, you cannot remediate identified issues until all respondents have submitted.
To reassign sections, click the Reassign Section button (2) in the Questions and Responses part (1) of the Assessment page.
To use the Reassign Sections button (2), first select the sections to reassign — check individual sections using the checkbox (4) next to their names, or select all sections at once using the checkbox (3) next to the Reassign Sections button. When sections have many questions, you may find it useful to collapse them first before selecting. Click a section name (5) to expand or collapse it.
After selecting sections and clicking Reassign Sections, the Reassign Sections window appears.
In this modal you can:
You can reassign a section to the same or a different respondent, including someone outside your organization. To select an external person, switch the toggle (1) next to the Reassign To field. For more information, see Creating an Assessment. If you need to assign different sections to different respondents, select and reassign each section separately for each unique respondent.
Enter the reasons for resending and click Send > Yes. The system sends notifications to the reassigned respondents and the assessment returns to Survey state. All respondents must re-answer their assigned questions before you can move forward. You can repeat this process as many times as needed until all answers are accurate and complete.
The assessment status changes to In Review — the issue remediation stage. All identified issues must be resolved before moving forward.
While in In Review state, you can manually overwrite the Question Risk Level/Score (3) (normally configured in the assessment template) and create remediation tasks (2) for appropriate stakeholders. To mark an issue as resolved, click Resolve (1) next to it. Only Approvers can resolve issues — Assessment Creators, Owners, and Admin users who are not Approvers will not see the Resolve button. For more information, see Reviewing Answers (Assessment Survey) and Adding Tasks.
Clicking Start Approval moves the assessment to Pending Approval, where designated approvers can go to the Approvals section (1) of the Assessment page and either Fail or Approve (2) the assessment. For more information, see Understanding the Approvals Section of the Assessment Report Page.
If there are multiple approvers, they must approve or fail in the order listed on the New Assessment page, which matches the order shown in the Approvals list. If all or a majority approve, the status automatically changes to Approved. If all or a majority fail, the status changes to Failed.
If there are any incomplete tasks associated with the assessment at the time of approval, the status becomes Approved Pending Remediation until all task assignees mark their tasks as complete. For more information, see Managing Assessment Tasks.