Q.1 Define
the concept of feasibility in planning process. Explain the difference between
feasibility testing and pilot testing and how we design a feasibility
testing
Answer:
What is a feasibility study? As the name implies, a feasibility
study is used to determine the viability of an idea, such as ensuring a project
is legally and technically feasible as well as economically justifiable. It
tells us whether a project is worth the investment—in some cases, a project may
not be doable. There can be many reasons for this, including requiring too many
resources, which not only prevents those resources from performing other tasks
but also may cost more than an organization would earn back by taking on a
project that isn’t profitable. A well-designed study should offer a historical
background of the business or project, such as a description of the product or
service, accounting statements, details of operations and management, marketing
research and policies, financial data, legal requirements, and tax obligations.
Generally, such studies precede technical development and project
implementation.
Five Areas
of Project Feasibility
A feasibility study evaluates the project’s potential for success;
therefore, perceived objectivity is an important factor in the credibility of
the study for potential investors and lending institutions. There are five
types of feasibility study—separate areas that a feasibility study examines,
described below.
1. Technical Feasibility - this assessment
focuses on the technical resources available to the organization. It helps
organizations determine whether the technical resources meet capacity and
whether the technical team is capable of converting the ideas into working
systems. Technical feasibility also involves evaluation of the hardware,
software, and other technology requirements of the proposed system. As an
exaggerated example, an organization wouldn’t want to try to put Star Trek’s
transporters in their building—currently, this project is not technically
feasible.
2. Economic Feasibility - this assessment
typically involves a cost/ benefits analysis of the project, helping
organizations determine the viability, cost, and benefits associated with a
project before financial resources are allocated. It also serves as an
independent project assessment and enhances project credibility—helping
decision makers determine the positive economic benefits to the organization
that the proposed project will provide.
3. Legal Feasibility - this assessment
investigates whether any aspect of the proposed project conflicts with legal
requirements like zoning laws, data protection acts, or social media laws.
Let’s say an organization wants to construct a new office building in a
specific location. A feasibility study might reveal the organization’s ideal
location isn’t zoned for that type of business. That organization has just
saved considerable time and effort by learning that their project was not
feasible right from the beginning.
4. Operational Feasibility - this assessment
involves undertaking a study to analyze and determine whether—and how well—the
organization’s needs can be met by completing the project. Operational
feasibility studies also analyze how a project plan satisfies the requirements
identified in the requirements analysis phase of system development.
5. Scheduling Feasibility - this assessment is
the most important for project success; after all, a project will fail if not
completed on time. In scheduling feasibility, an organization estimates how
much time the project will take to complete.
When these areas have all been examined, the feasibility study
helps identify any constraints the proposed project may face, including:
Internal
Project Constraints: Technical, Technology, Budget, Resource, etc.
- Internal
Corporate Constraints: Financial, Marketing, Export, etc.
- External
Constraints: Logistics, Environment, Laws and Regulations, etc.
Benefits of
Conducting a Feasibility Study
The importance of a feasibility study is based on organizational
desire to “get it right” before committing resources, time, or budget. A
feasibility study might uncover new ideas that could completely change a
project’s scope. It’s best to make these determinations in advance, rather than
to jump in and learning that the project just won’t work. Conducting a
feasibility study is always beneficial to the project as it gives you and other
stakeholders a clear picture of the proposed project.
Below are some key benefits of conducting a feasibility study:
- Improves
project teams’ focus
- Identifies
new opportunities
- Provides
valuable information for a “go/no-go” decision
- Narrows
the business alternatives
- Identifies
a valid reason to undertake the project
- Enhances
the success rate by evaluating multiple parameters
- Aids
decision-making on the project Identifies reasons not to proceed
- Apart
from the approaches to feasibility study listed above, some projects also
require for other constraints to be analyzed - Internal Project
Constraints: Technical, Technology, Budget, Resource, etc. Internal
Corporate Constraints: Financial, Marketing, Export, etc. External
Constraints: Logistics, Environment, Laws and Regulations, etc.
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Q.2 Why
do we need educational plan? Critically review the process of programming and
project identification in the context a project planning in Pakistan.
Answer:
Having worked with some of the most successful schools in the
world -- from North America to Australia -- I noticed they have one thing in
common: A great strategic plan. Strategic planning isn’t just for businesses
and non-profits. Any school with a mission to succeed in the best educational
interests of their students must have a plan to get there. A strategic plan
helps a school define what it intends to achieve when it comes to their student
success objectives and organizational goals. A combination of good planning and
communication will ensure that all stakeholders including parents, teachers,
administrators, principals, board members and community are all striving for
the same goals. Successful strategic plan implementation requires proper
management of budgetary and time resources, the creation of high-output teams
and the consistent monitoring of all progress. A good resource to get started
is to use our Free Strategic Plan Template. (opens a new tab) Here are 7
reasons why strategic planning for schools is so critical:
1. A
Strategic Plan articulates a shared vision, mission and values
This enables all stakeholders to work towards a common vision. A
leading cause of employee discontent (for businesses, non-profits, and even
schools) is that employees don’t understand how the work they’re doing helps
their organization. With a well communicated and executed strategic plan,
everyone is informed of their school’s goals and how their actions are
contributing to the achievement of these goals.
2. A
strategic plan effectively organizes schools and their staff
The plan encourages commitment by showing staff members that their
work is essential, part of a larger strategy to help their school
succeed.
3. A
strategic plan defines how success is measured
In order to achieve success, it’s important to know what success
means. A school with a strategy can monitor its progress toward key outcomes
and evaluate where and how it may have gotten off track. Using a strategy
implementation software like Envisio can help.
4. A
strategic plan aids a school’s board with governance decisions and provides
direction for the future
With a plan in place, the board has a roadmap which it can track,
evaluate and modify to facilitate better governance decisions and provide
direction for the future of the school.
5. A
strategic plan increases communication and engagement
In large organizations like schools communication is critical so
that everyone understands his or her responsibilities and departments are
effective in coordinating their efforts. As an additional benefit, the plan
helps with fundraising, as well. Donors are more likely to support a school
that has a clear vision and a strategy to make it happen.
6. A
strategic plan keeps everyone in a school—from teachers to
administrators—connected
A well implemented and communicated plan holds all staff
accountable for their actions and encourages collaboration.
7. The
best reason of all for strategic planning comes back to every great school’s
number one priority:
Students Best of all, strategic planning provides a framework so
that the most important priority of the school – Students’ educational
achievement is taken care of.
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Q.3
Explain the project cycle in the light of development project?
Answer:
Successful projects move through seven phases of the project cycle,
though not always in order. Learn more about these phases along with potential
pitfalls that keep projects from succeeding.
Watching the Road Signs
Although instinct might encourage business professionals to dive
right into projects, successful leaders understand that effective project
cycles contain seven distinct phases. Few projects actually move through all
seven phases in order. Some projects may require retooling that causes more
time for preparation and presentation. Longer projects may necessitate
alternating phases for implementation, monitoring, and evaluation. In all
cases, however, project managers should prepare for the distinct needs of each
project phase.
1.
Identification
Most projects enter the first phase of the project cycle with
little or no structure. Ideas that start in the back of the mind start to
bubble up into potential projects. As creative professionals include
colleagues, supervisors, or investors, projects become more formalized and
start to follow the traditional phases of a project cycle. On the other hand,
regular project cycles, such as grant competitions and workplace initiatives,
often operate from a top-down level. Project leaders usually issue a request
for proposals or a call for submissions, in order to discover the most
effective solution to a particular problem. In this kind of project, judges
must sift through different ideas before settling on the team that will take a
project through the project cycle’s six remaining stages.
2.
Preparation
This phase of the project cycle requires leaders and managers to
research both the needs and the impact of a project. The preparation phase
often includes brainstorming sessions that result in “pie in the sky"
estimates instead of true cost/benefit analysis. Effective preparation also
includes laying the groundwork for the evaluation phase of the project cycle.
Without agreeing on specific goals or outcomes, participants have no reliable
way to measure the success of their project.
3.
Appraisal
During the appraisal phase of a project cycle, project managers
negotiate with stakeholders for resources while setting timelines. Depending on
the scope of a project, leaders must determine whether hiring or outsourcing
human resources will play a role during the implementation phase. Other
resources, like technology and real estate, require budget estimates and impact
statements during this phase. The appraisal phase of the project cycle ends
once a clear plan with a timeline, budget, and expected outcome is ready for
submission to decision makers.
4.
Presentation
Arguably the most crucial phase in any project cycle, the
presentation often determines whether or not a project will reach its eventual
conclusion. Depending on the nature of the project, decision makers could
include board members, supervisors, investors, creditors, community members,
customers, or other stakeholders. By the presentation phase, project managers
and planners should be able to communicate:
- project
need
- goals
and expected outcomes
- budget
- timeline
Although many project managers prepare for the presentation phase
of the project cycle by building Gantt charts and PowerPoint decks, most
veteran planners recommend that presenters prepare to debate and to defend the
merits of their proposals. It’s not uncommon for projects to move between the
first three phases numerous times before receiving approval.
5.
Implementation
While implementation represents just one phase of a seven-step
project cycle, it frequently takes the longest amount of time. During this
phase a project manager actually takes the steps to lead a team through the
process developed during the previous four stages.
6.
Monitoring
While some project management professionals prefer to view
monitoring as a task that happens throughout the project cycle, many business
schools now teach students to treat this important task as its own dedicated
stage. Building a monitoring stage into a project cycle can involve measuring
independent benchmarks or scheduling formal progress meetings. Unlike the
evaluation stage of the project cycle, monitoring focuses more on individual
tasks or personnel in order to make adjustments. Projects often shift between
implementation and monitoring phases multiple times during a project cycle.
7.
Evaluation
Highly functional organizations use the evaluation phase of the
project cycle to answer three important questions:
- What
went well during the project?
- What
didn’t go so well?
- What
would project leaders and team members do differently during future
projects?
A successful evaluation phase requires effective planning during
the preparation phase. If project members succumb to office politics or fail to
document the shifting scope of a project, the evaluation phase of a project
cycle can easily shift to “blaming and shaming." However, when measurable
goals are set and stakeholders agree on desired outcomes, all parties can make honest,
insightful evaluations.
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Q.4
Elaborate the term project appraisal and project evaluation. What type of
project appraisal methodologies is the need of economic appraisal of a
project?
Answer:
Appraisal and evaluation are essential parts of good financial
management. The general principles should apply to any proposal - whether
project, programme or policy related - with implications for expenditure / use
of resources. The effort that should go into them and the detail to be
considered however is a matter of judgement. For example, proposals involving modest
expenditure / use of resources may merit less detailed appraisal and
evaluation. Good appraisal entails being clear about objectives, thinking about
alternative ways of meeting them, estimating and presenting the costs and
benefits of each potentially worthwhile option, and taking full account of
risks.
Appraisal
Appraisal is normally the starting point for any proposal - but it
is not a standard procedure. It is an ordered, but flexible, general approach
to the analysis of proposals with implications for expenditure / use of
resources. It should include not only economic analysis, but also other
important information such as financing implications, arrangements for project
management and plans for subsequent monitoring and evaluation. The principle of
proportionality should be applied, so the scale of the appraisal will vary
depending on the scale of the proposed project and its complexity, but an
appraisal should normally include the following steps:
- define
the objectives;
- consider
a range of options;
- identify,
quantify and value the costs, benefits, risks and uncertainties associated
with each option, including considerations of public private partnerships
and the scope for shared services arrangements with other public bodies,
optimism bias and distributional implications;
- analyse
the information;
- decide
what evaluation should be performed at a later stage; and present the
results.
The analysis will not always point to a clear-cut recommendation.
There may be risks and uncertainties attached to costs, benefits or both. There
may be significant elements that cannot be easily quantified in monetary terms.
For each option, the impact of all relevant factors and related risks and
uncertainties should be set out systematically and an assessment made of where
the balance of advantage lies. The Green Book gives more detailed guidance and
points to other sources which can help, for example, to deal with risk and
uncertainty, and with costs and benefits not easily valued, such as
environmental effects.
Pre
Expenditure Assessments
Appraisal within the SG involves the preparation of
Pre-Expenditure Assessments (PEAs). PEAs must be undertaken for any proposal
with significant resource implications. Guidance in relation to PEAs is at
Annex 2. The process involves assessing:
- the
aims and objectives of the proposal;
- the
options for addressing these objectives;
- the
evidence base on the likely economic, social, and environmental impacts
and value for money of the proposal, including cost-benefit analyses where
appropriate;
- the
financial and management arrangements for the proposal, including an
assessment of the key risks to successful delivery;
- the
plans for monitoring and evaluation. Other organisations subject to the
requirements of the SPFM may wish to adopt similar procedures. Further
details on the requirements for PEAs are available from the SG's
Analytical Services Divisions.
Evaluation
Evaluation examines the outturn of a project, programme or policy
against its objectives. It adds value by providing lessons from experience to
help future management or development of a specific project, programme or
policy. Evaluation should be planned from the outset of the project, and should
normally include the following steps:
- establish
exactly what is to be evaluated and how past outturns can be
measured;
- choose
alternative states of the world and/or alternative management decisions as
counterfactuals;
- compare
the actual outturn with the target outturn, and with the effects of the
chosen alternative states of the world and/or management decisions;
- draw
up the results and recommendations; and
- disseminate
and use the results and recommendations.
Project appraisal methodologies are methods used to access a
proposed project's potential success and viability. These methods check the
appropriateness of a project considering things such as available funds and the
economic climate. A good project will service debt and maximize shareholders'
wealth.
Net
Present Value
A project's net present value is determined by summing the net
annual cash flow, discounted at the project's cost of capital and deducting the
initial outlay. Decision criteria is to accept a project with a positive net
present value. Advantages of this method are that it reflects the time value of
money and maximizes shareholder's wealth. Its weakness is that its rankings
depend on the cost of capital; present value will decline as the discount rate
increases.
Payback
Method
A company chooses the expected number of years required to recover
an original investment. Projects will only be selected if initial outlay can be
recovered within a predetermined period. This method is relatively easy since
the cash flow doesn't need to be discounted. Its major weakness is that it
ignores the cash inflows after the payback period, and does not consider the
timing of cash flows.
Internal
Rate of Return
This method equates the net present value of the project to zero.
The project is evaluated by comparing the calculated Internal rate of return to
the predetermined required rate of return. Projects with Internal rate of
return that exceed the predetermined rate are accepted. The major weakness is
that when evaluating mutually exclusive projects, use of Internal rate of return
may lead to selecting a project that does not maximize the shareholders'
wealth.
Profitability
Index
This is the ratio of the present value of project cash inflow to
the present value of initial cost. Projects with a Profitability Index of
greater than 1.0 are acceptable. The major disadvantage in this method is that
it requires cost of capital to calculate and it cannot be used when there are
unequal cash flows. The advantage of this method is that it considers all cash
flows of the project.
Role of
cost benefit analysis:
Nearly every business decision requires a cost-benefit analysis.
Such an analysis can point out the risks and rewards of decisions or actions.
If you don't do a cost-benefit analysis, you run the risk of taking on
unprofitable tasks and wasting valuable time and money. Guessing at the
benefits or going by instinct can be a recipe for business failure.
Evaluate
Projects
A cost-benefit analysis is used to evaluate the risks and rewards
of projects under consideration. It can be used to project the potential
benefits of investing in marketing ideas, product development, infrastructure
enhancements and operational changes. If all potential costs are tallied
accurately and the benefits outweigh the costs, the considered investment may
be a good choice.
Prepare
Budgets and Sales Projections
The information obtained during a cost-benefit analysis makes
budgeting easier. If you have all the possible costs listed, you can project
the budget needed to undertake the project. The anticipated benefits can also
be used to project sales if they can be quantified into financial goals. Both
of these considerations are useful when preparing budgets and sales
projections.
Prioritize
Investments
Cost-benefit analysis is useful for business owners who must
choose among several potential projects. After examining profitable projects
for potential benefits, you can prioritize investments, choosing the projects
with the greatest benefit and lowest cost to invest in first. In this way, you
can achieve the fastest return on your investment and use remaining capital to
fuel additional projects.
Establish
Goals
Once the benefits of possible projects are understood, they can be
used to set benchmarks and goals for the project itself. Quantifiable benefits can
be used to set concrete revenue goals. Other benefits can be used to set
productivity, time or other management goals. Goals can be set for various
types of projects, including marketing, finance, management and human
resources.
Cost
effectiveness analysis in project appraisal
The main problem in the most public projects appraisal is their
uneconomic nature and impossibility to measure such data, like as turnover and
current costs, necessary for NPV or IRR calculation. An appraisal of economic
effi-ciency, as a measure of the net contribution of a project to overall
social welfare, should be conducted to each single case. Standard appraisal
methods based on projected profits and investment expenditures are not
applicable because of intangible nature of pure public projects. In such cases
Cost – Benefit Analysis (CBA) has been applied. The purpose of CBA is to ensure
that the public sector allocates scarce re-sources efficiently to competing
public sector projects. A basic assumptions of CBA is an identification the
crucial benefits effected from a project and their valuation to con-duct
project appraisal in terms of its effectiveness. A mixture of benefits and
costs will be differentiated, because of pro-ject purpose and designing. The
cost of a project should be somehow related to the benefit expected from it.
The rule that has evolved over many years is that benefits must ex-ceed the
costs from a project. CBA estimates and totals up the equivalent money value of
the benefits and costs to the community of projects to establish whether they
are worth-while. This means that all benefits and costs of a project should be
measured in terms of their equivalent money value and in particular time. The
most useful financial results in a CBA appear in a time-based cash flow
summary. The basic rule of CBA is that project should be performed only then,
when dis-counted benefits would be higher than discounted invest-ment
expenditures. As the investment expenditures are treated exact cost of investment
and operation costs after project putting into life. After some years of CBA
exercising such analysis has still prompted some doubts connected mainly to
choice of appropriate discount rate, externalities, risk and irre-versibility.
Their override is a subject of research of many economists. Despite of critical
remarks and some simplifications CBA has still been treated as a simple tool
with numerous applications in various spheres, especially in environmental and
other pure public projects, used commonly by banks and investors, more rarely
by state agendas and local governments – especially in less de-veloped
countries. The aim of a paper is to present problems and con-troversies with
Cost–Benefit Analysis application to pub-lic project appraisal. The paper
consists of five parts, in which there are distinguished public goods, key
assump-tions to public project appraisal, the main rules of Cost-Benefit
Analysis, discount rate issues, and a background of project choice.
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Q.5
Define the evaluation. Critically analyse the impact of design and method of
evaluation of educational project.
Answer:
Evaluation is a systematic determination of a subject's merit,
worth and significance, using criteria governed by a set of standards. It can
assist an organization, program, project or any other intervention or initiative
to assess any aim, realisable concept/proposal, or any alternative, to help in
decision-making; or to ascertain the degree of achievement or value in regard
to the aim and objectives and results of any such action that has been
completed. The primary purpose of evaluation, in addition to gaining insight
into prior or existing initiatives, is to enable reflection and assist in the
identification of future change. Evaluation is often used to characterize and
appraise subjects of interest in a wide range of human enterprises, including
the arts, criminal justice, foundations, non-profit organizations, government,
health care, and other human services. It is long term and done at the end of a
period of time. Evaluation is the structured interpretation and giving of
meaning to predicted or actual impacts of proposals or results. It looks at
original objectives, and at what is either predicted or what was accomplished
and how it was accomplished. So evaluation can be formative, that is taking
place during the development of a concept or proposal, project or organization,
with the intention of improving the value or effectiveness of the proposal,
project, or organisation. It can also be summative, drawing lessons from a
completed action or project or an organisation at a later point in time or
circumstance. Evaluation is inherently a theoretically informed approach
(whether explicitly or not), and consequently any particular definition of
evaluation would have been tailored to its context – the theory, needs, purpose,
and methodology of the evaluation process itself. Having said this, evaluation
has been defined as:
- A
systematic, rigorous, and meticulous application of scientific methods to
assess the design, implementation, improvement, or outcomes of a program.
It is a resourceintensive process, frequently requiring resources, such
as, evaluate expertise, labor, time, and a sizable budget "
- The
critical assessment, in as objective a manner as possible, of the degree
to which a service or its component parts fulfills stated goals" (St
Leger and WordsworthBell). The focus of this definition is on attaining
objective knowledge, and ] scientifically or quantitatively measuring
predetermined and external concepts. "
- A
study designed to assist some audience to assess an object's merit and
worth" (Stufflebeam). In this definition the focus is on facts as
well as value laden judgments of the programs outcomes and worth.
Purpose
The main purpose of a program evaluation can be to "determine
the quality of a program by formulating a judgment" Marthe Hurteau,
Sylvain Houle, Stéphanie Mongiat (2009). An alternative view is that
"projects, evaluators, and other stakeholders (including funders) will all
have potentially different ideas about how best to evaluate a project since
each may have a different definition of 'merit'. The core of the problem is
thus about defining what is of value." From this perspective, evaluation
"is a contested term", as "evaluators" use the term
evaluation to describe an assessment, or investigation of a program whilst
others simply understand evaluation as being synonymous with applied research.
There are two function considering to the evaluation purpose Formative
Evaluations provide the information on the improving a product or a process
Summative Evaluations provide information of short-term effectiveness or
long-term impact to deciding the adoption of a product or process. Not all
evaluations serve the same purpose some evaluations serve a monitoring function
rather than focusing solely on measurable program outcomes or evaluation
findings and a full list of types of evaluations would be difficult to compile.
This is because evaluation is not part of a unified theoretical framework,
drawing on a number of disciplines, which include management and organisational
theory, policy analysis, education, sociology, social anthropology, and social
change.
Discussion
However, the strict adherence to a set of methodological
assumptions may make the field of evaluation more acceptable to a mainstream
audience but this adherence will work towards preventing evaluators from
developing new strategies for dealing with the myriad problems that programs
face. It is claimed that only a minority of evaluation reports are used by the
evaluand (client) (Datta, 2006). One justification of this is that "when
evaluation findings are challenged or utilization has failed, it was because
stakeholders and clients found the inferences weak or the warrants
unconvincing" (Fournier and Smith, 1993). Some reasons for this situation
may be the failure of the evaluator to establish a set of shared aims with the
evaluand, or creating overly ambitious aims, as well as failing to compromise
and incorporate the cultural differences of individuals and programs within the
evaluation aims and process. None of these problems are due to a lack of a
definition of evaluation but are rather due to evaluators attempting to impose
predisposed notions and definitions of evaluations on clients. The central
reason for the poor utilization of evaluations is arguably due to the lack of
tailoring of evaluations to suit the needs of the client, due to a predefined
idea (or definition) of what an evaluation is rather than what the client needs
are (House, 1980). The development of a standard methodology for evaluation
will require arriving at applicable ways of asking and stating the results of
questions about ethics such as agentprincipal, privacy, stakeholder definition,
limited liability; and could-the-money-be-spentmore-wisely issues.
Critically analyze the impact of design and method of evaluation
of educational project:
A well-planned and carefully executed evaluation will reap more
benefits for all stakeholders than an evaluation that is thrown together
hastily and retrospectively. Though you may feel that you lack the time,
resources, and expertise to carry out an evaluation, learning about evaluation
early-on and planning carefully will help you navigate the process. MEERA
provides suggestions for all phases of an evaluation. But before you start, it
will help to review the following characteristics of a good evaluation (list
adapted from resource formerly available through the University of Sussex,
Teaching and Learning Development Unit Evaluation Guidelines and John W. Evans'
Short Course on Evaluation Basics): Good evaluation is tailored to your program
and builds on existing evaluation knowledge and resources.
Your evaluation should be crafted to address the specific goals
and objectives of your EE program. However, it is likely that other
environmental educators have created and fieldtested similar evaluation designs
and instruments. Rather than starting from scratch, looking at what others have
done can help you conduct a better evaluation. See MEERA’s searchable database
of EE evaluations to get started.
Good
evaluation is inclusive.
It ensures that diverse viewpoints are taken into account and that
results are as complete and unbiased as possible. Input should be sought from
all of those involved and affected by the evaluation such as students, parents,
teachers, program staff, or community members. One way to ensure your
evaluation is inclusive is by following the practice of participatory
evaluation.
Good
evaluation is honest.
Evaluation results are likely to suggest that your program has
strengths as well as limitations. Your evaluation should not be a simple
declaration of program success or failure. Evidence that your EE program is not
achieving all of its ambitious objectives can be hard to swallow, but it can
also help you learn where to best put your limited resources.
Good
evaluation is replicable and its methods are as rigorous as circumstances
allow.
A good evaluation is one that is likely to be replicable, meaning
that someone else should be able to conduct the same evaluation and get the
same results. The higher the quality of your evaluation design, its data
collection methods and its data analysis, the more accurate its conclusions and
the more confident others will be in its findings.
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