Evaluation Deliverables

Using the evaluation questions and other planning elements you have defined earlier, create a list of information that the evaluation needs to deliver in order to answer the evaluation questions. Specify when and how each item must be delivered. These are the elements of the evaluation. Add the deliverables to the evaluation plan, with an estimated delivery date. More accurate delivery dates can be established during the scheduling phase, which is next.

The Evaluation Schedule

Create a list of tasks that need to be carried out for each deliverable. For each task, identify the following:

• The amount of effort (hours or days) required to complete the task
• The resource that will carry out the task

Once you have established the amount of effort for each task, you can work out the effort required for each deliverable and determine an accurate delivery date. Update your deliverables section with the more accurate delivery dates.  A common problem discovered at this point occurs when an evaluation has an imposed delivery deadline from the sponsor or steering committee that is not realistic based on your estimates. If you discover that this is the case, you must contact the sponsor/committee members immediately. The options you have in this situation are the following:

• Renegotiate the due dates
• Employ additional resources
• Reduce the scope of the evaluation

Congratulations! Having followed all the preceding steps, you should have a good evaluation plan. Remember to update your plan as the evaluation progresses and measure progress against the plan.

Previous posts in this series

Getting Started

Questions Evaluation will Answer

Elements in an Evaluation Plan

Coming up in this series of posts:

• Performing the evaluation
• Training evaluation and continuous improvement
• Training evaluation organizational readiness

As always, I would enjoy hearing your thoughts on this topic.