Need to conduct a survey?

The following will be useful if you need to conduct a survey:

Specify the purpose
Know the problem that to be solved and specify the objective of the survey in a clear and crisp fashion.

Information to be collected
Once the purpose or the objective is clear, enumerate the data or the information that is required to reach the goal.

It is important to be focused on the data that is required and avoid any temptations to gather some extra bit of information.

Target
Identify the target population for your survey. This may be a smaller subset of the total population on which the final product resulted from this survey will be available to.

Other sources of information:
Now that you have identified the target population and the data to be collected, evaluate other sources available which may give the same information as this survey (like institutional data etc.) which may save time and money to conduct this survey.

Ways to conduct survey
Web survey and traditional survey.

By traditional survey it is implied that the surveyor collects the data by calling, mailing or interacting face to face with the population. This may be intrusive but at the same time it is adaptive and personalized. It also helps in keeping track of exact number of people who have taken the survey that is you sample size.

A better and more popular way of surveying is through the internet. It is a very useful tool and allows to increase the sample size without making people feel being intruded at the same time limiting the access to internet users. Also in this method

What should be in the Questionnaire?
Questions should be focused onto gathering information about the problem.

At the beginning of the questionnaire you should provide a short and crisp introduction to the purpose of the survey.

Keep them short and to the point.

Use simple language.

Logical organization and presentation of the questionnaire like the important questions should be asked first.

Do not ask questions that may offend the responder in any way.
Before distributing test it on a smaller section to find out its effectiveness

Analysis

Use graphs, tables and other statistical methods to analyze the results. If you have used a web based survey, the analysis becomes simpler and requires lesser man-time. Your analysis should be related to your initial objective.

Action Plan

Final step is to devise an action plan based on analysis of the survey result.


Reference: How do I conduct a web survey? The process of conducting an effective web based survey.