Evaluation is an important part of the project/program. Planning and resource allocation for measuring progress needs to be included from the beginning.
As a guide, evaluation generally costs approximately 10 to 20 per cent of the total project/program budget. Evaluation will show if the project/program is working, or indicate if changes need to be made [17].
To measure the project/program's progress, information will need to be collected before the project/program commences. This is referred to as establishing a baseline. The baseline information will be used to compare data collected at a later date. Baseline information is collected during Phase 1. There are two sources of information collected in Phase 1 that form the baseline:
To further assist planning for evaluation, develop clearly defined and measurable goals, objectives and strategies to assess the project/program's progress, achievements, successes and shortcomings.
It is important to write an evaluation plan.
"An evaluation plan is an outline of the way to assess, or measure a project. It sets out how success will be measured who will do the evaluation and what information will be gathered and considered [22]".
To plan your evaluation, refer to the evaluation planning worksheet and the list of evaluation tools.
For information on measuring progress using the different types of evaluation, refer to Phase 4: Review.
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