Читать книгу An Introduction to Evaluation - Chris Fox - Страница 21

Another common distinction in the evaluation world is that between process (sometimes referred to as implementation) and impact (sometimes referred to as outcome) evaluation. Traditionally, evaluation was restricted to questions concerning impact or outcome and typical among these might be (based on HM Treasury 2013):

 What were the policy, programme or project outcomes?

 Did the policy, programme or project achieve its stated objectives?

 Were there any observed changes, and if so how big were these changes and how much could be said to have been caused by the policy, programme or project as opposed to other factors?

 How did any changes vary across different individuals, stakeholders, sections of society and so on, and how did these compare with what was anticipated?

 Did any outcomes occur which were not originally intended, and if so, what were they and how significant were these?

Process evaluation answers the question ‘How was the policy, programme or project delivered?’ (HM Treasury 2013) or the ‘What is going on?’ question (Robson 2011). Process evaluation may provide a useful additional element to an outcome evaluation, helping to explain why an intervention did or didn’t work. However, a process evaluation may be a ‘standalone’ exercise designed to provide a detailed description of the implementation process or a counterpoint to an ‘official’ view of what should be happening in a policy, programme or project (Robson 2011).

Impact evaluation therefore looks similar to summative evaluation and process evaluation looks similar to formative evaluation, but there are distinctions. For example, a summative evaluation occurs at the end of a programme, whereas an impact evaluation need not necessarily do so.