Compare methods

	Developmental Evaluation	Outcome Harvesting
Field	Public Policy	Public Policy
Family	Process / pipeline	Process / pipeline
Year of origin	2011	2012
Originator	Michael Quinn Patton	Ricardo Wilson-Grau & Heather Britt
Type	Complexity-informed evaluation approach for innovation	Retrospective, outcome-led evaluation approach
Seminal source	Patton, M. Q. (2011). Developmental Evaluation: Applying Complexity Concepts to Enhance Innovation and Use. New York: Guilford Press. ISBN: 9781606238721	Wilson-Grau, R., & Britt, H. (2012). Outcome Harvesting. Cairo: Ford Foundation MENA Office (revised November 2013).
Aliases	DE, Patton Developmental Evaluation, Complexity-Informed Evaluation	OH, Wilson-Grau Outcome Harvesting
Related	4	4
Summary	Developmental evaluation is an approach designed to support innovation and adaptation in complex, dynamic environments where the intervention itself is still emerging. Articulated by Michael Quinn Patton in his 2011 book, it abandons the assumption of a fixed, pre-specified model to be tested, and instead embeds an evaluator within the design team to provide real-time feedback that informs ongoing development. Its purpose is development — helping social innovators learn, adapt and respond as conditions change — rather than the improvement of a settled program (formative) or the judgement of a completed one (summative).	Outcome Harvesting is a participatory evaluation approach, developed by Ricardo Wilson-Grau and Heather Britt, that identifies outcomes after they have occurred and then works backward to determine whether and how an intervention contributed to them. Instead of measuring progress against predefined targets, evaluators 'harvest' evidence of observable changes in the behaviour, relationships, actions or policies of social actors, then assess the program's contribution to each. It is designed for complex settings where cause-and-effect relationships are not fully understood in advance and outcomes cannot be specified ahead of time.