2.  “nothing to something” situation where the
aim of the evaluation is to provide findings
to aid decision-making about a new
program, one being developed from
scratch.
 a program exists but there is a need for
major review, with the likelihood that this
existing program will be altered radically or
even replaced by a new more appropriate
one.

3.  provide information in order to assist
decisions about a future or projected
program.
 known as ”up-front” undertaken before
policies and programs are planned and
implemented.
 Evaluation for Development

4.  the extent of the need among a defined
population for a program in a given area
of provision;
 sythesising what is known in the existing
research and related literature about an
identified issue or problem;
 Critically reviewing ways in which an
identified issue or problem has been
solved through programs mounted in
other locations.

5.  provide information in order to assist
decisions about a future or projected
program.
 known as ”up-front” undertaken before
policies and programs are planned and
implemented.
 Evaluation for Development

7.  Needs assessment
 Research review
 Review of examplary practice
(establishment of benchmarks)

8.  A systematic set of procedures undertaken
for the purpose of setting priorities and
making decisions about program or
organizational improvements and allocation
of resources.
 The priorities are based on identified
needs.
(Witkin & Altschuld, 1995)

10.  Synthesize research relevant to a particular
issue or problem which is the target of
future policy or program development
 Predicted on the assumption that “funded
knowledge”, the results of relevant pure
and applied prior research, should be taken
into account when planning programs.

11. 1. Formulating the area of inquiry;
2. Collecting data;
3. Evaluating the data;
4. Analysis, interpretation, and integration;
5. Presenting the findings.

12.  Benchmarking – is the search for best
practices that can be applied with a view to
achieving improved performance.
- systematic and continuous process of
measuring and comparing an organization’s
business processes against those of leaders
anywhere in the world, to gain information
which will help drive continuous
improvement (Sharp, 1994)

13.  A key is to locate practitioners who have
shown that their practice has a superior
edge in the in the provision of services or
products in a given area.

14.  Who is doing best?
 How do they do it?
 How well are we doing relative to the best?
 How good do we want to be, relative to the
best?

15.  The targeted identification of best practice
and a consideration of whether this practice
applies to the organization;
 A thorough, sustained program of external
analysis and investigation;
 The ability to reduce the findings of best
practice to indicators which are meaningful
as a management tool within the
organization.