Logic models: a tool for telling your programs performance story
Section snippets
The problem
At its simplest, the Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) can be reduced to a single question: What are we getting for the money we are spending? To make GPRA more directly relevant for the thousands of Federal officials who manage programs and activities across the government, GPRA expands this one question into three: What is your program or organization trying to achieve? How will its effectiveness be determined? How is it actually doing? One measure of GPRAs success will be when
The Program Logic Model
Evaluators have found the Logic Model process useful for at least twenty years. A Logic Model presents a plausible and sensible model of how the program will work under certain conditions to solve identified problems (Bickman, 1987). Thus the Logic Model is the basis for a convincing story of the programs expected performance. The elements of the Logic Model are resources, activities, outputs, customers reached, short, intermediate and longer term outcomes, and the relevant external influences (
Building the Logic Model
As we provide detailed guidance on how to develop a Logic Model and use it to determine key measurement and evaluation points, it will become more clear how the Logic Model process helps program managers answer the questions Mr. Koskinen and others are asking of them. An example of a federal energy research and technology development program will be used throughout. Program managers in the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy have been using the Logic Model
Measuring performance
Measurement activities take their lead from the Logic Model produced by the work group. There are essentially two purposes to measure program performance: accountability or communicating the value of the program to others, and program improvement. When most managers are faced with accountability requirements, they focus on collecting information or evidence of their programs accomplishments—the value added for their customers and the degree to which targeted problems have been solved. Another
Conclusion
This paper has set forth for program managers and those who support them the Logic Model tool for telling the programs performance story. Telling the story involves answering the questions: What are you trying to achieve and why is it important?, How will you measure effectiveness?, and How are you actually doing? The final product of the Logic Model process will be a Logic Model diagram(s) that reveals the essence of the program, text that describes the Logic Model diagram, and a measurement
Acknowledgements
In addition to the authors cited in the references, the authors thank Joe Wholey, Jane Reismann, and other reviewers for sharing their understanding of Logic Models. The authors acknowledge the funding and support of Darrell Beschen and the program managers of the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, performed under contract DE-AC04-94AL85000 with Sandia National Laboratories. The opinions expressed and the examples used are those of the authors, not the
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