Ten steps for test development

• Published in: Psicothema Vol. 31; no. 1; pp. 7 - 16
• Main Authors: Muñiz, José, Fonseca-Pedrero, Eduardo
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: Spanish
• Published: Spain 01-02-2019
• ISSN: 1886-144X
• DOI: 10.7334/psicothema2018.291

Ten steps for test development.
Tests are the measurement instruments most used by psychologists to obtain data about people, both in professional and research contexts. The main goal of this paper is to synthesize in ten steps the fundamental aspects that must be taken into account when building a test in a rigorous way.
For the elaboration of the ten proposed phases, the specialized psychometric literature was revised, and previous works by the authors on the subject were updated.
Ten steps are proposed for the objective development of a test: delimitation of the general framework, definition of the variable to be measured, specifications, items development, edition of the test, pilot studies, selection of other measurement instruments, test administration, psychometric properties, and development of the final version.
Following the ten proposed steps, objective tests can be developed with adequate psychometric properties based on empirical evidence.