Compare methods

	Formative Evaluation	Utilization-Focused Evaluation
Field	Public Policy	Public Policy
Family	Process / pipeline	Process / pipeline
Year of origin	1967	1978
Originator	Michael Scriven	Michael Quinn Patton
Type	Improvement-oriented evaluation function	Use-driven program evaluation framework
Seminal source	Scriven, M. (1967). The methodology of evaluation. In R. W. Tyler, R. M. Gagné, & M. Scriven (Eds.), Perspectives of Curriculum Evaluation (pp. 39–83). Chicago: Rand McNally. ISBN: 9780528616600	Patton, M. Q. (2008). Utilization-Focused Evaluation (4th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications. ISBN: 9781412958615
Aliases	Improvement-Oriented Evaluation, Developmental Improvement Evaluation	U-FE, Patton Utilization-Focused Evaluation, Use-Focused Evaluation
Related	4	4
Summary	Formative evaluation is evaluation conducted to improve a program, policy or product while it is still being developed or refined. The term was coined by Michael Scriven in his 1967 essay 'The Methodology of Evaluation', alongside its counterpart summative evaluation. Where summative evaluation renders a final verdict on a completed intervention, formative evaluation feeds timely information back to designers and implementers so they can fix problems, adjust components and strengthen the intervention before it is finalised or scaled.	Utilization-focused evaluation (U-FE) is a framework, developed by Michael Quinn Patton from the late 1970s, built on a single organising principle: an evaluation should be judged by its actual use by the people for whom it is intended. Rather than treating use as an afterthought to a technically sound study, U-FE makes intended use by primary intended users the criterion that drives every decision — what is evaluated, what questions are asked, which methods are used, and how findings are reported. The evaluator's job is to facilitate that use throughout, not merely to deliver a report.