1. In the upper right corner of Lifecycle Manager, hover over the Settings icon.
2. From the dropdown menu, click Account Settings.
   
    
3. In the left navigation bar, click Assessment templates.
   
    

The assessment templates page displays all of the templates currently available to you.

Choose between ScalePad templates (a list of pre-built templates) or Custom templates (Your own customized templates)

From here, you can either:

• Create a new template by clicking + New template in the upper right of the page.
  
   
• Edit an existing custom template by clicking its Title from the list.
  
   

Each assessment can be divided into categories, making it easier to track specific areas of interest when conducting the assessment.

Example categories include Hardware, Security, or Policies, but can be set up in any way that makes sense for your use case.

To add a category to your template:

1. Click + Add Category
2. Enter a name for the category
3. Add a description.
   
    

• Remove a category by clicking - Remove Category.
  

Assessment items can be added directly into a category by clicking the + Add new items button in the category header.

1. Click + Add new items.

2. Populate the fields on the item screen:

   Title - A descriptive title for the assessment item.   Description - A short description of the item.   Category - The category the item is assigned to.   Type - The type of response expected (This affects the 'Responses' section below).   Weight - Populated from the main template screen.   Scoring instructions - How the assessor should evaluate this item.   Explanation/Remediation Tips - Extra information on how this assessment item can be resolved/remediated.   Responses - The options the assessor can choose from

3. Click Done to add the assessment item.

For more information on assessment items see Configuring responses for assessment items.

Weights allow you to control how much each category and item affects the final assessment score.

Adjusting category weights

Each category can be weighted depending on its importance in the assessment. The higher the weight, the more the category will affect the assessment's score.

By default, weight is spread evenly across all categories, but it can be adjusted depending on your needs. As long as the total weight across all categories adds up to 100%, you can distribute weights however you want.

To adjust category weights:

1. Click Edit weight at the top of the assessment template.
   
    
2. Use the Collapse all categories button to view only categories and not items.
   
    
3. Click into the weight field for the category you want to adjust.
   
4. Enter a percentage value for the category.
5. Adjust your other category weights as needed to ensure the total weight of all categories adds up to 100%.
6. Click Done.

To reset to an even distribution, click Set weights as equal to automatically divide weights equally across all categories and items.

Adjusting item weights

Adjusting item weights within each category works in the same way as adjusting category weights.

While the combined category scores affect the assessment score, the item scores affect the category they belong to.

1. Click Edit weight at the top of the assessment template.
2. If you collapsed categories in the previous section, click Expand all categories to make items visible again.
3. Click into the weight field for the item you want to adjust.
   
    
4. Enter the new percentage value for that item.
5. Adjust the other item weights to ensure that the total weight within that category adds up to 100%.
6. Click Done.

When your assessment template is ready, you can save it for future use with the options at the bottom of the template editor.

1. Discard changes - Discard any changes made to the template since the last time it was saved.
2. Save as new - Save a copy of the current template as a new Custom Template. The existing template remains as-is, and a copy with your current changes is saved into Custom Templates.
3. Save changes (Not available for ScalePad Templates) - Save the changes you've made to the existing template.