Develop initial description

It is helpful to develop an initial description of the project, program or policy as part of beginning an evaluation.

Checking this with different stakeholders can be a helpful way of beginning to identify where there are disagreements or gaps in what is known about it.

An overview of what’s being evaluated can include information on:

  • The rationale: the issue being addressed, what is being done, who is intended to benefit
  • The scale of the intervention, budget and resources allocated and stage of implementation
  • The roles of partner organizations and other stakeholders involved in implementation
  • The implications of contextual factors - geographic, social, political, economic and institutional circumstances can create opportunities or challenges
  • Significant changes that have occurred over time - because of changes in contextual factors or lessons learnt

Methods

  • Existing documents

    Reviewing documents produced as part of the implementation of the evaluand can provide useful background information and be beneficial in understanding the alignment between planned and actual implementation.

  • Existing project description

    Existing project descriptions about what is being evaluated can sometimes be accessed and used by evaluators.

  • Peak experience description

    This method provides a succinct and coherent description of a program, project or policy when it is operating at its best.

  • Thumbnail description

    A ’thumbnail’ is a brief description (short like a thumb nail).

Approaches

  • Appreciative inquiry

    Appreciative Inquiry is an approach to organisational change which focuses on strengths rather than on weaknesses - quite different to many approaches to evaluation which focus on deficits and problems.

'Develop initial description' is referenced in:

Back to top