How to use this guide

The guide provides a roadmap for managers through seven steps of managing an evaluation project.

Who is this Toolkit designed for?

This Toolkit is designed for NSW public sector managers who are responsible for a program evaluation – whether this is undertaken by external evaluators, an internal team, or a combination of internal and external.

The Toolkit can also be used by evaluation teams (internal or external) as a resource to help them choose appropriate methods and use them well, and to understand how to meet the expectations for evaluation under the NSW Government Program Evaluation Guidelines.

What does the Toolkit provide?

The Toolkit covers 7 steps of managing a program evaluation project, with an overview of what is required at each step, and advice about ways to ensure evaluation quality in terms of rigour, utility, feasibility and ethics. It explores how you determine the questions to ask and how to decide on the evaluation designs and methods to best answer them.

The Toolkit describes good practice in program evaluation as set out by the NSW Government Program Evaluation Guidelines. But it is a guide — it does not stipulate government requirements for evaluation or reporting.

Throughout the Toolkit you’ll find links to more detailed explanations and resources for different evaluation designs, methods and tools. The Better Evaluation website is the key underlying resource, an ever-expanding website of over 200 evaluation methods, tools and resources. You can use the many links through this Toolkit or access the BetterEvaluation site.

Your feedback will improve the Toolkit

The pages in this Toolkit are being refined and will be updated over time. To provide feedback or for more information about how to implement the toolkit, contact the Centre for Program Evaluation.