Evaluating Project Success

Abstract

As the social action programs of the 1960s and 1970s developed and expanded, social scientists developed evaluation techniques and methodologies to help assess the outcomes of these programs. Evaluation became a requirement for many social programs and a key requirement of federally funded applied research efforts. Many of the social action programs of the time were in the health care field, and many if not all of the major health care organizations participated in these programs with their required evaluation components. However, only a minority of these health care organizations elected to apply their acquired evaluation skills to their internal programs and efforts. The concept of evaluation has progressed to where it is a very sophisticated system and one that provides valuable information to the decision makers.