You can weight the value of sections with scoring via Weighting. This is set in the publishing modal of a questionnaire.
Scoring and Weighting are different:
- Scoring refers to the evaluation and marking of a question. The response to a question can be scored out of a maximum amount during evaluation. This is set for individual questions when creating a template/questionnaire. See here for guidance on setting scoring.
- Weighting refers to the value of a scored section for the overall tender.
Setting Weighting rules
Weighting rules are set in the publishing modal of a questionnaire by clicking on the 'Weighting' button.
N.B: Once you save the Weighting of a questionnaire, you can no longer edit its sections and questions. It's important to only set the weighting once you are sure that you don't need to edit the questionnaire.
Weighting application
It's important to factor in the application of weighting when creating and structuring your questionnaires.
- Weighting is applied at section level (so the weighting rules are applied to ALL scored questions within a section).
- The number you specify in the Weight column will be multiplied by the total score of the section to produce the weighted score.
- If you have different weighting rules for questions and you want the system to automatically calculate the weighted scores, you must put them in different sections.
Step-by-step on calculating and setting weighting for a section:
- Work out the total score of the section, based on the scoring you set up for questions within the section.
- e.g If the section has four questions each scored out of 5, the total score of the section is 20.
- Divide the weighting of the section by the total score.
- e.g. If the weighting for the section is 40%, you would divide 40 by 20.
- Enter that value in the 'Weight' column next to the section.
- e.g. 40 ÷ 20 is 2, so you would enter 2 as the Weight.
- Evaluators will score bidders responses for the section, which will then be automatically multiplied by this value to produce the weighted score.
- e.g. A Bidder is scored 15 out of 20 for the section. This is then automatically multiplied by 2 to get a weighted score of 30.
Example 1
You have two sections in your questionnaire.
Both sections have two written questions which use the same marking criteria scored out of 5. You would therefore set the scoring on all four questions to be scored out of 5.
Both sections would then have a total score out of 10, with the whole tender scored out of 20. Without weighting, this would mean that each section is worth 50% of the overall tender.
However, Section 1 is actually worth 30% whilst Section 2 is worth 70%. This is when you would need to set Weighting to apply to the scoring of each section. You want to bring up the maximum score of Section 1 from 10 to 30 and Section 2 from 10 to 70, with the whole tender scored out of 100.
| Total score of the section | Value of the section | Value to apply for Weight | Total weighted score of section | |
Maximum score that evaluator can give (as set up when creating Questionnaire) | How much of the overall Tender each section is worth | Value of the section divided by the Total score of the section | Total score of the section multiplied by the Weight set for the section | |
| Section 1 | 10 | 30 % | 30 ÷ 10 = 3 | 3 x 10 = 30 |
| Section 2 | 10 | 70 % | 70 ÷ 10 = 7 | 7 x 10 = 70 |
| Total: | 20 | 100% | 100 |
Bidder A scores 5 out 10 on Section 1, and 8 out of 10 on Section 2. With the weighting applied:
Section 1: 5 x 3 = 15
Section 2: 8 x 7 = 56
Their overall weighted score for the tender is therefore 71/100.
Example 2
Your 'Pricing' questions that are worth 30% of the questionnaire. Your 'Quality' questions that are worth 70% of the questionnaire.
| Section | Weighting |
|---|---|
| Pricing | 30% |
| Pricing Section | 30% |
| Quality | 70% |
| Quality Section 1 | 20% |
| Quality Section 2 | 15% |
| Quality Section 3 | 5% |
| Quality Section 4 | 5% |
| Quality Section 5 | 25% |
| Quality Section 6 | Pass/Fail |
| Total: | 100% |
Pricing questions are scored out of 15.
Quality is made up of written questions. Written questions are scored out of 5.
Each section has a different number of questions:
- Pricing = 2
- Quality Section 1 =2
- Quality Section 2 = 2
- Quality Section 3 = 2
- Quality Section 4 = 1
- Quality Section 5 = 4
You then divide the sections Total weighted score of the section by the Total score of the section to come up with the values to enter in the Weight column:
| Total score of section | Value of the section | Total weighted score of section | Value to apply for Weight | |
Maximum score that evaluator can give (as set up when creating Questionnaire) | How much of the overall Tender each section is worth | Maximum weighted score for the section based on the value of the section | Total Weighted Score divided by Total Score = Weight | |
| Pricing Section | 30 | 30% | 30 | 1 |
Quality Section 1 | 10 | 20% | 20 | 2 |
| Quality Section 2 | 10 | 15% | 15 | 2.5 |
| Quality Section 3 | 10 | 5% | 5 | 0.5 |
| Quality Section 4 | 5 | 5% | 5 | 1 |
| Quality Section 5 | 20 | 25% | 25 | 1.25 |
| Total: | 85 | 100% | 100 |
Here's an example of how a bidders response would look after weighting is applied:
| Evaluation score | Weighted score | |
Score provided by evaluator when evaluating | The weighted score achieved for this section based on Evaluation score x Weight | |
| Pricing Section | 23 | 23 x 1 = 23 |
Quality Section 1 | 8 | 8 x 2 = 16 |
| Quality Section 2 | 6 | 6 x 1.5 = 9 |
| Quality Section 3 | 10 | 10 x 0.5 = 5 |
| Quality Section 4 | 5 | 5 x 1 = 5 |
| Quality Section 5 | 16 | 16 x 1.25 = 20 |
| Total: | 68 | 78 |
Example 3
Your Quality Statement questions make up 40% of the overall Tender.
Each question is scored out of 5.
Each question is worth a different amount of that 40%:
Qual 1 = 17.5%
Qual 2 = 12.5%
Qual 3 = 10%
Qual 4 = 7.5%
Qual 5 = 12.5
Qual 6 = 7.5%
Qual 7 = 7.5%
Qual 8 = 17.5%
Qual 7 = 7.5%
As these all make up 40% of the tender, you want the total weighted score of the sections to add up to 40. Right now they all add up to 100, so you'd firstly have to work out the total weighted score of each section by dividing them each by 2.5 (as 100 divided by 2.5 = 40).
Then you can work out the Weight to apply by dividing the total weighted score by the total score for each section.
Setting Up the Questionnaires & Scoring | Evaluation Score(s) | |||||
Criteria | Total Score | Value of Section | Total Weighted Score | Value to apply for Weight | Evaluation Score | Weighted score |
| Maximum score that evaluator can give as set up when creating Questionnaire | The value each section is worth of 40% | Maximum weighted score of section based on Value of section divided by 2.5 (to get 100 to 40) | Total Weighted Score divided by Total Score = Weight | Score provided by evaluator when evaluating | The weighted score achieved for this section based on Evaluation score x Weight |
Quality Statement 1 | 5 | 17.5% | 7 | 1.4 | 5 | 7 |
Quality Statement 2 | 5 | 12.5% | 5 | 1 | 4 | 4 |
Quality Statement 3 | 5 | 10% | 4 | 0.8 | 5 | 4 |
Quality Statement 4 | 5 | 7.5% | 3 | 0.6 | 5 | 3 |
Quality Statement 5 | 5 | 12.5% | 5 | 1 | 4 | 4 |
Quality Statement 6 | 5 | 7.5% | 3 | 0.6 | 5 | 3 |
Quality Statement 7 | 5 | 7.5% | 3 | 0.6 | 4 | 2.4 |
Quality Statement 8 | 5 | 17.5% | 7 | 1.4 | 3 | 4.2 |
Quality Statement 9 | 5 | 7.5% | 3 | 0.6 | 5 | 3 |
Total | 100% | 40 |
| 34.6 | ||
Quality Statements | 40% of overall Tender | |||||