What are the best tools and methods for creating and presenting a logical framework?

Embracing participatory and community-endorsed solutions is strongly encouraged. Engaging in thorough consultations with stakeholders throughout the planning phase will prove invaluable in shaping the project's objectives and expected outcomes. Employing technical expertise to establish SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound) results and indicators is instrumental in crafting a pragmatic logical framework (LF) that aligns with the project's measurement and reporting requirements. Adequate allocation of financial resources to put the LF into action is crucial for the successful implementation of the framework.

The goal should be very specific, and have a desired date to accomplish the goal. How will you know when you reach the goal? Spell it out, numerically. Reduce infant mortality? Do we REALLY need another new term? Once you have a starting goal, maybe you can now get the requirements, and how they will be measured. I prefer to get the customer/client requirements FIRST, then when we know what they want, we can set a specific goal. (I have facilitating the planning of thousands of projects in many industries.

One thing that I've found very helpful is to establish a hierarchy of goals that reflects the relationship between broader, long-term goals and more specific, short-term goals. This hierarchy helps me in organizing and prioritizing all my monitoring and evaluation efforts. And I also keep my baseline data always in view when defining these goals. Baseline data, for me, provides the key starting point against which progress can be measured, allowing for a more accurate assessment of the project's impact afterward.

One thing that is commonly overlooked when defining project goals is to define objectives to obtain and optimize buy-in of beneficiaries as well as maintaining impact.

Goal: Generally, your goal encompasses the broader objective the project aims to contribute to. This is usually at the company level – where are you heading in the long term?

Outcome: Increased productivity. Answer: Employees now have enough time to take an actual lunch break, instead of inhaling their sandwiches at their desks. Outcome: Improved communication. Answer: Coworkers can now hold a conversation without using an excessive amount of jargon and acronyms that nobody understands. Outcome: Enhanced teamwork. Answer: The company softball team has won their first game in years, thanks to improved collaboration and coordination. Outcome: Boosted morale. Answer: Employees are now eagerly volunteering for the dreaded Monday morning shift, thanks to the new coffee machine in the break room.

Moving forward, the second step entails pinpointing the project outcomes, delineating the transformations or advantages that the project aims to deliver for the target group and beneficiaries. These outcomes ought to be pragmatic, attainable, and directly tied to the project's overarching goal. Drawing from experience in the Rohingya response project, these outcomes could encompass augmenting access to and utilization of safe water and sanitation facilities, alongside bolstering the knowledge and practices of mothers regarding child feeding and hygiene. This approach reflects both the necessity and feasibility of outcomes derived from real-world humanitarian endeavors.

Define the Timeframe for achieving each Outcome. State How Will You measure the progress of Achieving the Outcomes against the timeliness

Purpose or Outcome: the direct impact of the project. You’ll need to get a little more specific here. Why are you doing this project, and how does it support your longer-term goals? Essentially, this is the measurable direct impact of the project.

Design the Standards against which you will use to Quality Assure the products and the services, for example if the service is an online application; Is achieving the objective, accessible, target suddenness defined, clear instructions, Original, enhance thinking..etc

Outputs: these are the specific results or products that need to be produced to accomplish the purpose/outcome. Outputs are tangible deliverables that are totally in your team’s control.

Outputs are specific low level results that you wish to achieve through the application of various inputs that are clearly stated in the log frame.

Activities: these are the tasks that must be done to achieve the Outputs (step 3). These are your specific, day-to-day actions. Also, make sure you have a way to measure the output of the activities and have a timeline for each activity. Additionally, think about sequencing, dependencies, resources, budget, and scheduling key milestones when fleshing out the activities.

Activities will support the objectives if they are linked yo the objectives..it makes sense to include a brief summary about the activities ; audience, equipments, staffing...

Consider the KPI is describing the level and the status of objectives by the end of the process where are we in terms of achirving the objectives. Therefore, the KPI/ should be SMART KPIs since they present the status of SMART objective

As the name implies, project indicators are pointers that indicate or prove that the project has been successful. Indicators can also be formulated or written for each level of results (impact, outcomes and outputs).

The 6 steps are logic basis for any good project to start with - they give a good framework but it’s just like the classic project charter. What I was hoping for from this article were visual examples of the proposed framework that could be reused to communicate this type of data. I’m always looking for new ideas.

it's crucial to analyze assumptions and risks. Assumptions are favorable conditions supporting project logic, while risks are potential challenges. Seen risks like insecurity and material shortages must be addressed, but unseen risks like community resistance require proactive strategies. By continuously monitoring and adapting, we can ensure project resilience. Presenting these insights through a clear and concise logframe fosters transparency and accountability.

Assumptions can be right or wrong, it's the careful follow up during the project cycle that could verify that. The important thing here is keep our focus on converting the threats into opportunities even if our assumptions were wrong.

During this time ask for feedback from all team members. Feedback is important. Feedback allows for early adjustment and makes any project better.