Developmental evaluation is evaluation in support of social innovation and tackling complex issues. It is appropriate certain situations and conditions, and not others. The following assessment tool will help you assess whether a situation is suitable (or not) for a developmental evaluation, and whether your group is a good match for a developmental evaluation process.

These checklists ask you to rate a series questions. The checklists are followed by a set of more open-ended questions that can help to start to plan your developmental evaluation. The checklist can be completed by an individual, or as a group, using the questions as a prompt for discussion. Once you have responded to all the statements, tally up the results, and make a judgement about if, when and how you might proceed.

The sections are:

• Developmental situation – is the initiative truly adaptive, requiring new and constantly adapted approaches, or it a more conventional effort requiring efficient delivery of relatively established responses?
• Adaptive capacity – do the decision-makers, and those supporting them, have the capacity and interest to work in the adaptive way required for social innovation and working with complex issues?
• Readiness for developmental evaluation – are the innovators involved ready to productively use developmental evaluation?
• Preparation for planning the developmental evaluation – some things to consider as you think about how to gather information and interact with the innovators

Discover other resources, podcasts and seminars about developmental evaluation.