PPA 502 – Program Evaluation

1. PPA 502 – Program Evaluation Lecture 8 – Managing Evaluation Projects Step by Step

2. Introduction • Definitions. • Evaluation project management: A process of considerations, decisions, and activities engaged in by the leadership of an evaluation project to facilitate its conduct. • Project director: evaluation management leader who is directly accountable to the project sponsor for successful completion of the evaluation. • Evaluation staff or evaluators: the individuals who conduct the evaluation, whose work is facilitated by evaluation leadership.

3. Introduction • Definitions. • Sponsor: the organization paying for the evaluation. • Client: the user of the evaluation products. • Stakeholders: multiple audiences who have an involvement or concern for the substance of the evaluation. • Core process. • Foster insight and creativity. • Apply focus and discipline to accomplish mandate on schedule and within resources.

4. Introduction • Areas essential to effective project management. • Clarifying the evaluation mandate. • Staffing and organizing for success. • Making assignments productive. • Monitoring interim progress. • Ensuring product quality and usefulness.

5. Evaluation Management Areas and Aims

6. Clarifying the Evaluation Mandate • Gain agreement on the evaluation mandate before or very early in the evaluation. • Check this agreement periodically during contacts with evaluation clients and sponsors. • Minimize the cost of maintaining agreement by integrating checks on the mandate with technical evaluation activities, such as client review of a draft data collection and analysis protocol. • Beware of tacit agreements.

7. Staffing and Organizing for Results • Use a staffing matrix and observations about interpersonal communication skills to facilitate initial selection of staff members. • Organize evaluation staff members into teams based on project tasks, evaluation methodology, or subject matter responsibilities. • In evaluations with two or more teams, form a synthesis group to foster coherent effort across the technical teams.

8. Making Assignments Productive • Be very clear about each assignment’s product, outcome, or end point as well as resources and expected completion date. • If possible, use well-chosen examples from similar projects to illustrate expected products. • Formalize assignment agreements.

9. Monitoring Interim Progress • Don’t confuse expected activity and expenditure levels with commensurate technical progress. • Time monitoring episodes to complement and not impede product development. • Ensure that project management staff are effective monitors.

10. Assuring Product Quality and Usefulness • Involve the sponsor, program, and other representatives of the evaluation audience in a four-step report development process. • Start early in the project with an outline, and then use a briefing to gain agreement about the content of the report. • Solidify the agreement on report content through follow-up briefings on draft products; Reserve polishing and editing resources until the technical content is finalized.