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Evaluability assessment overview
An evaluability assessment helps to determine if a programme is ready to be evaluated and whether an evaluation is likely to produce meaningful results.1 Conducting an evaluability assessment before proceeding with designing and conducting an evaluation is important to maximise its success and usefulness, and ensure effective use of resources.
An evaluability assessment should be conducted prior to any formal evaluation. It examines the:
- Goals and objectives of a programme
- Design and implementation of a programme
- Availability of data and resources to produce results
- Organisational context and support
While the components of an evaluability assessment may, at first glance, read as chronological steps, you may find that this process is not strictly linear. There could be several components that need to be completed simultaneously or revisited multiple times.
The BetterEvaluation website includes an overview of evaluability assessments and a downloadable evaluability assessment checklist (.docx).
Additional resources
For more information on evaluability evaluations, visit the resources below or reach out to us at evaluation@greo.ca to see how we can help.
- Evaluability assessment: A systematic approach to deciding whether and how to evaluate programmes and policies (What Works Scotland)
- Evaluability assessment guides and resources (University of Glasgow)
- Using evaluability assessment to assess local community development health programmes: A Scottish case-study (BMC Medical Research Methodology journal article)
- Evaluability assessment of NHS England Quality Surveillance Team Programme (Edge Hill University)
1 Davies R, Payne L (2015). Evaluability assessments: Reflections on a review of the literature. Evaluation. 21(2):216-231. https://richardjdavies.files.wordpress.com/2009/08/evaluation-2015-davies-216-31.pdf
2 Evaluability assessment. Better Evaluation. https://www.betterevaluation.org/en/themes/evaluability_assessment