Evaluation Implementation – 2.03 Revise scope and Evaluation plan
The final step in the revision process is to revise the evaluation plan itself – to determine the scope for the next cycle of evaluation, and to revise the evaluation plan to complete that scope. Based on the discussions and thinking completed as part of steps III.1.01 and III.1.02, the working group should have begun to form some initial ideas about how the evaluation plan should be revised. The purpose of this step is to organize and consolidate these ideas and then incorporate them into a new, updated version of the evaluation plan. In addition, in some cases, the working group may decide that they have addressed the evaluation questions laid out in the original plan to their satisfaction and may want to adjust the overall scope, purpose and guiding questions of the evaluation plan.
As the program and its evaluation mature and move through their lifecycle phases, the working group may find that it becomes appropriate and necessary to address parts of their model that are further and further to the right while still gathering evidence for key items and pathways “earlier” in the model. No matter how the working group decides to adjust the scope and purpose of their evaluation plan, this will require them to develop a new evaluation plan based on the new scope and evaluation questions. As was made clear in the planning phase of this protocol, the evaluation scope and questions will determine the required methodology and measurement tools. The working group should refer to stage 3 of the planning protocol guide for a review of the steps necessary to develop a complete and aligned evaluation methodology.
The working group should create an archive of evaluation plans in the same way that they do with their program models. It will be important for future working group members and stakeholders to be able to see the evolution in thinking and the logical steps taken from plan to plan throughout the history of the program.
Assessing evaluation work so far
At this point in the protocol, the working group is again encouraged to pause and reflect on their evaluation work to date. The end of the Utilization Phase is another opportunity to measure evaluation capacity, both at the program and organizational levels. It is probable that over the course of the implementation and utilization phases, the program and organization have learned more about evaluation and have made changes that have affected their capacity to do evaluation. Therefore, the Evaluation Champion is encouraged to utilize the Program and Organizational Capacity Surveys to formally assess these variables again at this time.