Slack questionnaire

When the AI can't answer a question because the relevant data isn't in your Fides system inventory, the Slack questionnaire workflow lets you route those unanswered questions directly to subject-matter experts (SMEs) in a Slack channel. SMEs respond in Slack and their answers flow back into the assessment automatically.

Prerequisites

• A Slack workspace connected to Fides and a questionnaire channel selected. See Slack integration in the configuration guide for setup instructions.
• At least one question in the assessment with "Needs input" status.

Step 1: Open the assessment

Navigate to the assessment and verify that one or more question groups have "Needs input" answers. These are the questions that will be sent to Slack.

Step 2: Send the questionnaire

Click Request input from team in the assessment header. Fides sends one Slack message per unanswered question to the configured channel. Each message is posted as a separate thread so that respondents can answer independently without seeing each other's answers. All "Needs input" questions are sent by default.

How questions appear in Slack

Each question appears in the channel as a message containing:

• The assessment name and system name
• The question number and text
• Instructions for how to respond (reply in the thread)
• A deadline if one was set in the questionnaire tone configuration

SMEs reply directly in the thread. Fides monitors the channel and ingests replies automatically. The answer source is recorded as "Via Slack" and the respondent's Slack display name is stored in the answer metadata.

Monitoring questionnaire progress

You can track which questions have been answered directly from the assessment detail page. Each question group updates its completion status as SME responses come in.

Customizing questionnaire tone

You can customize the wording and tone of the Slack messages Fides sends. This is useful for organizations that want questions framed for non-technical audiences, or that have specific language requirements. See configuration for how to set a custom tone prompt.

How SME responses update the assessment

When an SME replies in a Slack thread, Fides:

1. Ingests the reply text from the Slack API.
2. Creates a new answer version with source "Via Slack".
3. Updates the question status from "Needs input" to "Complete".
4. Records the Slack user's identity and the timestamp in the answer metadata.

The answer appears in the assessment immediately. You can review it, edit it further if needed, and it becomes part of the immutable version history.