How to commission an evaluation
As the former Chief Evaluator for the Commonwealth Department of Social Services, I quickly developed extensive experience as the commissioner of 25 external evaluations and chair of the assessment panels. Here is a series of questions that will help you to clarify the purpose of commissioning an external evaluation? 1. What is the program (or suite of programs) under review? Are the program purpose, objectives and available datasets known and documented Is all program documentation (including previous evaluations) available? 2. Is the program ongoing or terminating? If the program is ongoing what are the funding and reporting timeframes that will guide the timeframe for the evaluation? If the program is terminating this means decisions have already been made and I would ask the question “what benefit will...