I introduced the term “developmental evaluation” (Patton, 1994) to
describe certain long-term, partnering relationships with clients who
are, themselves, engaged in ongoing program or organizational development.
These clients incorporate me into their decision-making
process as part of their design teams because they value the logic
and conceptual rigor of evaluation thought, as well as the knowledge
I’ve picked up about effective programming based on accumulated
evaluation wisdom. My role is to ask evaluative questions and
hold their feet to the fire of reality testing. Evaluation data are collected
and used as part of the ongoing organizational development
process, to be sure, but quite above and beyond the use of findings,
these development-oriented decision makers want to have their ideas
examined in the glaring light of evaluation logic.