Whenever you design, run or evaluate a Commonwealth program or activity, it always occurs in a particular context. It is important to understand your entity's operating context, purposes, key activities and current performance framework – outlined in your Corporate Plan – in order to decide:
- if and when an evaluation should be carried out
- if the use of evaluation methods and tools could improve the quality and robustness of your existing performance information.
It is important to consider how the objectives of a specific program or activity contribute to your entity achieving its purpose/s, and whether you have all the performance information you need to assess how well those objectives are being met.
Things to consider
What factors in my operating context need to be considered?
- What are the purposes of your entity? What are the objectives of your program or activity?
- What factors (environmental, risk, capability, and partnerships) must be managed to achieve your purpose/s?
- How does your program or activity contribute to achieving your entity’s purpose/s?
- How do you currently forecast, measure and assess the performance of your program or activity against its objectives?
- Has an evaluation been included in a new policy proposal, or in your entity’s corporate plan?
- Is there a government directive or a legislative requirement to do an evaluation?
- What is the level of support and capability for doing an evaluation in your entity?
- Does your entity have an evaluation strategy or an evaluation unit to guide you?
How can I identify and prioritise what should be evaluated?
- What matters most to the people that matter?
- Where is the activity or program in the policy development cycle?
- Can an evaluation support, complement or enhance your regular performance monitoring and reporting activities?
- Can evaluation methods and tools be used to improve the quality of reporting in corporate plans and annual performance statements?
- Note all Commonwealth entities are required to forecast, measure, assess and report on their key activities throughout the reporting cycle – where would the proposed evaluation fit in?
What is the main purpose of my evaluation?
Who is the audience and how will the evaluation be managed?
Understand your operating context
Understanding your entity's current operating context, and where a specific program or activity fits in, is critical for deciding what should be evaluated and when.
Working with stakeholders can help to:
- identify when evaluative methods and tools can be used to improve the quality of performance reporting published in corporate plans and annual performance statements
- identify and prioritise evaluation topics
- design effective, ethical and culturally appropriate evaluations that support an entity to achieve its purpose/s.
Commonwealth entities are required to publish a discussion about their operating context in their corporate plan. This discussion should provide a clear understanding of how, individually and collectively, things like:
- capability levels
- risk oversight and management
- cooperation with others contribute to an entity achieving its purpose/s over the 4 year period covered by each plan.
Review corporate plan
Reviewing your entity's corporate plan can help you develop an understanding of where a specific program or activity fits within your operating context, and how an evaluation might help to strengthen performance reporting and accountability within your entity.
The performance information collected for your specific program or activity may be more detailed than the high-level performance information reported in your entity’s Corporate Plan or Portfolio Budget Statement.
Ideally, you still should be able to identify which key activity it relates to and the contribution it makes towards meeting your entity's purpose/s.
Past evaluation findings
Findings from past evaluations can also help to inform a more mature discussion about program performance and your entity’s operating context in future corporate plans. This ensures that there is a continuous feedback loop where evaluation both informs, and is informed by, your entity's routine performance monitoring and reporting.