How do you manage a program evaluation timeline?

1 Define your evaluation purpose and questions

Before you start creating your timeline, you need to have a clear idea of why you are conducting the evaluation and what you want to learn from it. Your evaluation purpose and questions will guide your decisions about the scope, methods, data sources, and reporting of your evaluation. They will also help you estimate the time and resources needed for each stage of the evaluation. To define your evaluation purpose and questions, you can consult with your program team, stakeholders, funders, and beneficiaries, and review your program logic model, theory of change, or outcomes framework.

2 Choose your evaluation approach and design

Once you have your evaluation purpose and questions, you need to choose an evaluation approach and design that best suit your needs and context. Your evaluation approach refers to the overall perspective or philosophy that guides your evaluation, such as participatory, developmental, or empowerment evaluation. Your evaluation design refers to the specific methods and techniques that you will use to collect and analyze data, such as surveys, interviews, focus groups, case studies, or experiments. Choosing your evaluation approach and design will help you determine the roles and responsibilities of the evaluators and stakeholders, the ethical and quality standards to follow, and the data collection and analysis tools to use.

3 Identify your evaluation activities and deliverables

Next, you need to identify the main activities and deliverables that you will carry out and produce throughout the evaluation. These may include developing an evaluation plan, conducting a literature review, designing data collection instruments, sampling and recruiting participants, collecting and managing data, analyzing and interpreting data, writing and disseminating reports, and facilitating feedback and learning sessions. For each activity and deliverable, you need to specify the expected outputs, outcomes, and indicators of success.

4 Estimate your time and resources

After you have identified your evaluation activities and deliverables, you need to estimate how much time and resources you will need for each of them. This will depend on various factors, such as the size and complexity of your program, the availability and accessibility of data, the skills and experience of the evaluators and stakeholders, the level of participation and engagement required, and the potential risks and challenges that may arise. You can use different methods to estimate your time and resources, such as historical data, expert judgment, analogy, or parametric modeling.

5 Create your evaluation timeline

Finally, you need to create your evaluation timeline by organizing your evaluation activities and deliverables into a logical sequence and assigning start and end dates to each of them. You can use different tools to create your evaluation timeline, such as Gantt charts, calendars, or spreadsheets. You should also include milestones, checkpoints, and deadlines to monitor and track your progress and performance. Your evaluation timeline should be realistic, flexible, and adaptable, as you may need to adjust it based on changing circumstances, feedback, and learning.

6 Communicate and update your evaluation timeline

Creating your evaluation timeline is not enough. You also need to communicate and update it regularly with your program team, stakeholders, funders, and beneficiaries. This will help you ensure that everyone is on the same page, aligned with the evaluation goals and expectations, and aware of their roles and responsibilities. It will also help you solicit and incorporate feedback, address issues and concerns, and celebrate achievements and successes. You can communicate and update your evaluation timeline through different channels, such as meetings, emails, newsletters, or dashboards.

7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?