---
title: Key survey terms
description: These survey terms are used throughout the documentation to describe survey management functions and capabilities.
locale: en-US
canonical_url: https://www.servicenow.com/docs/r/australia/servicenow-platform/c\_survey-key-terms.html
release: australia
topic_type: concept
last_updated: "2026-03-12"
reading_time_minutes: 1
breadcrumb: [Surveys reference, Surveys, Assessments and Surveys, Exploring Service Administration, Service Administration, Manage service capabilities, Extend ServiceNow AI Platform capabilities]
---

# Key survey terms

These survey terms are used throughout the documentation to describe survey management functions and capabilities.

<table id="table_jcc_wqf_hr"><thead><tr><th>

Term

</th><th>

Description

</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>

Survey definition

</td><td>

Root record on which a survey is built. A survey definition contains information such as the survey name, state, and distribution schedule. Each survey definition has its own categories and questions.Survey definitions are comparable to legacy survey masters.

</td></tr><tr><td>

Public survey

</td><td>

Any user can take a public survey, even users who have not logged in to the ServiceNow system. For a completed survey, the **Assigned to** field value is Guest.

</td></tr><tr><td>

Survey category

</td><td>

Represents a theme for survey questions. Categories contain one or more questions. The system creates one category per survey by default. Additional categories are optional.

</td></tr><tr><td>

Survey question

</td><td>

A question that appears on a survey questionnaire for the associated survey definition. Survey questions are comparable to legacy survey questions.

</td></tr><tr><td>

Survey user

</td><td>

User who is authorized to receive invitations for a restricted survey.

</td></tr><tr><td>

Survey instance

</td><td>

Represents one survey questionnaire assigned to one user. Survey instances are comparable to legacy survey instances.

</td></tr><tr><td>

Trigger condition

</td><td>

Defines a rule that enables the system to send a survey when an action occurs on a table, such as when an incident closes. Trigger conditions are comparable to legacy survey conditions.

</td></tr><tr><td>

Scorecard

</td><td>

Visual representation of survey responses. Scorecards display a variety of data summaries for one survey definition.

</td></tr></tbody>
</table>**Parent Topic:**[Surveys reference](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ServiceNow/ServiceNowDocs/australia/markdown/australia/servicenow-platform/survey-reference.md)