Evaluators favor clearly defined, rationally conceived, data-driven program designs,
and implementation that carefully proceeds according to plan. Pre-designed programs
are favored because these details are worked out ahead of time. Though an evaluator's
dream, such programs may be derailed because they fail to consider local problems and
citizen preferences of approach. Without explicit attention to the process of community
inclusion in decision-making, such programs often undermine the opportunity for
consensus formation which undergirds mobilization. In contrast, process-driven designs
may explicitly avoid clearly stated goals and means in order to maximize consensus
amidst diversity of opinion. Moreover, process-driven designs are likely to be quite flexible,
changing course in response to changing local conditions: from bad weather to the
emergence of new problems to the sudden availability of resources. Consider the example
raised by Bennett (1998, p. 37):