Developmental Evaluation: An overview

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As you might know, through our sister company, Three Hive Consulting, we support healthcare and non-profit organizations to achieve their mission by uncovering insights that drive impact through evaluation. 

Recently, we’ve had several clients ask us about Developmental Evaluation (DE) including what it is and how it’s done. So we’ve pulled together a few main points on DE below.

How does Developmental Evaluation work?

• Developmental Evaluation (DE) facilitates close-to-real-time feedback about what is working well and what’s not, therefore facilitating parallel streams of planning, acting, and doing

• DE tailors your evaluation to your needs and the specific context

• In contrast to formative or summative evaluation, DE supports the creation, development, or adaptation of a program as it is being implemented to inform development

• As part of DE, the evaluator is embedded in the program as a member of the team

What Developmental Evaluation is NOT

• Developmental Evaluation (DE) is not an evaluation method, there is no one right way of doing it

• DE is not about product or service Improvement

When should Developmental Evaluation be used?

• Developmental Evaluation (DE) is for emergent, volatile, and exploratory programs, those that don’t know what activities to do or steps to follow to meet their goals

• DE is most appropriate when working in complex environments where the route to change is non-linear and cannot be easily predicted

• DE is suited to socially complex situations, innovation, radical program re-design, and crises

Have you used Developmental Evaluation before? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!