It can be challenging to manage all of the security questionnaires you receive from prospects. With our Security Questionnaire Automation (SQA) feature, you can now streamline and automate this task, reducing the manual effort and time it takes to respond to each questionnaire.
Prerequisite
Ensure you have one of the following roles within Drata: Admin or Information security leads.
Ensure to opt in to using Drata AI in Settings
This feature is not workspace specific. Its knowledge base is based on all of the workspaces you have.
Those who have the Foundation or Advanced packages or those with Trust Center Pro.
Set up security questionnaire automation
Note: Ensure that you’ve opted in to using Drata AI in Settings before configuring Security Questionnaire Automation.
After you set up your security questionnaire automation configurations, you can always edit or update these configurations later.
Setting up for the first time
Navigate to your Questionnaires page. If you have access, this will be located on the left side navigation under Trust.
On the Questionnaires page, select the Try it out button to begin configuring your preferences.
Complete the Three-Step Wizard.
Understand sources: Read how Drata leverages AI to assist with questionnaires, then continue.
Past sources: Upload a questionnaire you completed in the past so the knowledge base has a reference for future questionnaires. This is an optional step, but highly recommended.
Current sources: Select the Drata sources to help generate AI responses for your questionnaires. You can update this in the future. Within each section, select the Update button, to select the specific sources.
For example, under policies, if you would like to utilize only certain policies, select Update and checkmark or select the policies that you would like to utilize.
After completing the wizard, select Finish setup.
Updating your configuration
Navigate to your Questionnaires page.
Select Answer sources tab. Here, you can update and manage what can be utilized to generate AI responses for your questionnaires. Select Edit selections.
For the following source options, ensure you meet the requirements. If you do not, you cannot select those options.
Use evidence library: You must have at least one piece of evidence uploaded that has a file attached. We support indexing these file types:
.txt,.pdf,.doc,.docx,.png,.csv,.xlsx, and.xls.Use policies: You must have at least one policy in Policy Center that has been approved. Drata will not use externally linked sources as a source of information.
Use subprocessor: You must have at least one subprocessor defined in the vendors list.
Ensure to save your changes.
Access and update questionnaires
On the Questionnaires page, you'll find the following tabs: Active, Completed, and Answer Sources.
Active tab overview
The Active tab displays all questionnaires that require your review and approval of AI-generated responses. You can also add or upload new questionnaires here.
The table lists all incomplete questionnaires and provides the following key details:
Progress column: Displays how many answers have been reviewed and confirmed.
Status column: Indicates the current status of the questionnaire. The available status is listed below.
Extracting questions: SQA is working on extracting questions from the questionnaire file that was added.
Processing answers: SQA is working on building responses using the answer sources you’ve specified.
Ready for review: SQA has built responses and is ready for you to review and approve the answers.
Review in progress: You have started reviewing the responses but the questionnaire has not yet been finalized.
Failed processing: Questionnaire fails to upload for the first time. Select the Retry button to reattempt uploading.
Failed: Questionnaire fails to upload after retrying.
Here, you can select a questionnaire to review, confirm, or manage responses, download the questionnaire, and more. The next few sections showcase what you can do within a questionnaire.
Access a specific questionnaire
Select the questionnaire to confirm or manage responses.
Here, you can review, edit, attach a file, or confirm the answer for a question. The following is an example of how a questionnaire might look like.
Select any of the questions to review or manage the answer. Each of the questions will have icons next to it.
Questions without AI answers: These will have a yellow time icon (
). You can manually enter a response and attach a file if needed. Once the question is reviewed, ensure to confirm the answer.
Questions with AI answers: These will have an AI icon (
). You can confirm or edit the AI-generated answer. You can also review the confidence level and learn more by hovering over the information icon. Once the question is reviewed, ensure to confirm the answer.
Questions with confirmed answers: These will have a checkmark icon (
). You can view the response details, including the date it was confirmed. You can also edit the answer if needed.
Filter your questions within a questionnaire
You can filter your questions based on the answers given. Select Filter by button. The options are:
With suggestions: View all of your questions that have AI generated answers. If you confirmed the answer, there may be a checkmark icon instead of the AI icon.
Without suggestions: View all of your questions that did not have an AI generated answer. If you confirmed the answer, there may be a checkmark icon instead of the yellow time icon.
Completed: View all of your questions that have confirmed answers.
Confirm all of the answers
To confirm all of the answers, you can select Confirm all answers.
You can also confirm your answers one by one. Select the question to view and confirm the answer.
Add a question to your questionnaire
You can manually add a question to the questionnaire if needed.
Select Add question. Enter the question on the popup modal. This will not be answered by AI, but will be included in your final questionnaire.
Download questionnaire
You can download the questionnaire or the questionnaire with the attachments. Select the Download button and the option that best fits your needs.
Delete the questionnaire
You can also delete a questionnaire. Select the ellipse and then Delete questionnaire.
Finalize the questionnaire
To mark your questionnaire as completed, select Finalize questionnaire. A double confirmation modal will appear for you to mark as complete.
Completed tab
Within the Completed tab, you can view all of your questionnaires you marked as complete. Select the question and here, you can reopen the questionnaire so that it is active. You can also delete a questionnaire. Select the ellipse and then Delete questionnaire.
Answer sources tab
On this tab, you can update your selection of sources for all future questionnaires. Updating your sources will not affect your previous questionnaires.
Under the Completed questionnaires section, you can view the completed questionnaires that are also used as an answer source for subsequent questionnaires. You can also upload a completed questionnaire or download a completed questionnaire.
Add questionnaire
When adding a questionnaire, ensure that the questionnaire is not reliant on the following item. These items are not supported:
Dropdown menus within question or answer fields.
Files with built-in formulas.
Multiple pages or interdependent tabs within your Excel or CSV files.
Answers are not reliant on a specific position within a table.
To add a questionnaire:
Navigate to your Questionnaires page. This will be located on the left side navigation under Trust.
Select Active tab. This is the default tab.
Select Add questionnaire button.
Enter the questionnaire details and upload the questionnaire.
Delete questionnaire
There are several different ways to delete a questionnaire. You can delete an active questionnaire or a completed questionnaire.
To delete an active questionnaire:
Navigate to your Questionnaires page. This should be located on the left side navigation under Trust.
Select Active tab. This is the default tab.
Select the questionnaire.
Select the ellipse to and then Delete questionnaire.
To delete a completed questionnaire:
Navigate to your Questionnaires page. This should be located on the left side navigation under Trust.
Select Complete tab.
Select the questionnaire.
Select the ellipse to and then Delete questionnaire.