Form Building Phases

Phases of Building a Form

Here are the phases you would go through when creating your own form. 

Below are the four core phases every Dynamic Form goes through, from planning to launch. Understanding each phase helps ensure your form is accurately designed, fully tested, ADA/WCAG compliant, and ready for Production. Our Dynamic Forms ITS Team can give an overview of each phase to ensure you are prepared and can deliver a quality form that meets your needs. 

• Requirements/Design –This phase focuses on planning the structure, content, and workflow of your form before any building begins.

  During this step, your department defines what the form must collect, who participates, how approvals flow, and what conditions or rules are needed.

  You will:

  • Gather requirements with stakeholders
  • Sketch or mock up the form layout
  • Identify required fields, conditional logic, and approval paths
  • Map how each participant is designated and what actions they take
  • Review any existing versions (paper forms, PDFs, Qualtrics surveys) to identify needed Dynamic Forms features

• Build – This is where the form takes shape. You can build from scratch or modify an existing template.

  During this phase, fields, workflow, routing, designation types, rules, and advanced settings are configured. The Dynamic Forms ITS Team reviews your build to ensure all settings are correctly applied.

  • Required Steps: 
    • Form Level Settings - Must be configured to meet your forms needs. Our support pages provide generic text for Form Level Settings such as Inactive Text, Confirmation Text, Opt-Out Notifications, etc. 
    • Banner APIs - If you would like to leverage data from Banner within your form, you must submit a Data Usage Request and contact the Dynamic Forms ITS to have the API’s configured.
    • Accessibility Review – After the build is finalized, the ITS Team performs an ADA/WCAG and Yale Accessibility compliance check to ensure required labels, field structure, and instructions meet standards.
• Testing – Testing validates that all items, rules, routing, emails, and workflows function correctly before going live. The Dynamic Form ITS Team guides you through testing requirements and may temporarily alter certain settings to allow you to test every scenario.
  • Required Steps:
    • Organization Level Settings - Dynamic Forms ITS Team will assist in the environment level settings such as enabling Preferred Name at e-sign, Forms history behavior, Log out URL, Reply-to Email Address, Return For Revisions Email Address, etc. 
    • Testing Confirmation - Your department must formally confirm to the Dynamic Forms ITs team that all testing is complete and successful, including:
      • All workflow paths
      • All rule logic
      • All email conditions
      • All designation types
      • ADA behavior (accessible field structure, descriptive labels, compliant focus navigation, and WCAG-approved contrast)
      • Any Banner API data
• Migrate to Production – After successful testing and departmental approval, the form is moved to Production. This process is normally quick but may take longer if complex APIs or Dynamic Form Extensions (DFEs) are involved.
  • Required Steps:
    • Admin Access -Notify the Dynamic Forms ITS Team of any other departments who need access to submission records or admin tools. 
• Administrator Resources - Review admin documentation to understand available tools for managing submissions, adding notes, exporting data, and tracking participant progress..

Questions? Contact Dynamic Forms ITS Team by emailing DynamicForms.ITS@yale.edu