Developing Indicators of Success

by Meghan SchiedelNo Comments
Success indicators (see my previous post) are crucial to monitoring and measuring the success of a program or service. In this post, I will explain how to develop indicators of success and help you to identify when to use them. Step 1: Identify Your Team  The research staff should develop indicators of success during the planning phase of your program design process in close collaboration with the program staff. If you don’t have a research team, designate who will be responsible for the oversight of the research. If any government or NGO counterparts are designing the program and have explicit knowledge of the program goals and objectives, you will want to include them.   Step 2: Identify What to Measure  Next, determine which inputs, outputs, or outcomes (see my post: What is a Logic Model?) of the program are most important to track. A program will likely use many indicators to assess the change that results from the intervention. These can be pulled from the...
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Success Indicators

Success Indicators

by Meghan SchiedelNo Comments
I’ve shared about logic models in previous posts; these are visual tools to help you develop successful programs or services. One of the critical pieces within a logic model is developing agreed-upon outcomes that indicate that the program is successful. To measure these, we need tools called success indicators.  How do they assess the outcomes of a program?  They do this by defining its characteristics or variables and then tracking those characteristics over time or between groups. Clear success indicators are the foundation of any effective monitoring and evaluation system. Organizations need success indicators for two reasons. The first is to track how a program is working and moving toward progress in reaching specific goals. Program staff and the program leadership team need to measure this change over time and make adjustments in real-time to help achieve the desired outcomes. The second reason these clear indicators are required is for accountability. Key stakeholders may contribute to the design of a program, but it is ultimately...
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