Compare methods

	Goal Attainment Scaling	Single-System Design	Strengths Assessment	Task Analysis (Social Work)
Field	Social Work	Social Work	Social Work	Social Work
Family	Process / pipeline	Process / pipeline	Process / pipeline	Process / pipeline
Year of origin	1968	2009	2012	1992
Originator	Thomas J. Kiresuk & Robert E. Sherman	Martin Bloom, Joel Fischer & John G. Orme (codification in social work)	Dennis Saleebey (strengths perspective); Charles Rapp & Richard Goscha (strengths model assessment)	William J. Reid & Laura Epstein (task-centered practice)
Type	Individualized, criterion-referenced outcome measurement procedure	Time-series design for evaluating intervention with a single client system	Structured, domain-based assessment of client and environmental strengths	Qualitative procedure for decomposing a goal into sequenced, accomplishable tasks
Seminal source	Kiresuk, T. J., & Sherman, R. E. (1968). Goal attainment scaling: A general method for evaluating comprehensive community mental health programs. Community Mental Health Journal, 4(6), 443–453.	Bloom, M., Fischer, J., & Orme, J. G. (2009). Evaluating Practice: Guidelines for the Accountable Professional (6th ed.). Pearson/Allyn & Bacon. ISBN: 9780205458066	Saleebey, D. (Ed.). (2013). The Strengths Perspective in Social Work Practice (6th ed.). Pearson. ISBN: 9780205011544	Reid, W. J. (1992). Task Strategies: An Empirical Approach to Clinical Social Work. Columbia University Press. ISBN: 9780231076876
Aliases	GAS, Goal Attainment Scale, Kiresuk-Sherman Goal Attainment Scaling, Individualized Goal Scaling	Single-Subject Design, Single-Case Design, N-of-1 Design, Single-System Evaluation	Strengths-Based Assessment, Strengths Perspective Assessment, Strengths Model Assessment, Asset-Based Assessment	Task-Centered Task Analysis, Task Implementation Sequence Analysis, Reid Task Analysis, Task Breakdown Analysis (Social Work)
Related	3	4	3	3
Summary	Goal Attainment Scaling (GAS) is a method for measuring the outcomes of an individualized intervention by writing, in advance, a small set of client-specific goals and defining for each a graded scale of possible outcomes from much worse than expected to much better than expected. After the intervention, the actual outcome on each goal is scored on this scale and the scores are combined into a single standardized index, allowing idiosyncratic, personally meaningful goals to be aggregated and compared across clients and programs. It was introduced by Thomas Kiresuk and Robert Sherman in 1968 to evaluate community mental health programs.	A single-system design is a time-series approach to evaluating practice in which a single client system — an individual, family, group, or organization — is measured repeatedly on a clearly defined target before and during (and sometimes after) an intervention. By tracking the same system over time rather than comparing a treatment group to a control group, it lets a practitioner judge whether their own intervention is associated with change in the people they actually serve. It is the methodological backbone of the 'accountable professional' tradition codified by Bloom, Fischer, and Orme.	Strengths assessment is a structured way of assessing a client that deliberately foregrounds capabilities, resources, and aspirations rather than deficits and problems. Grounded in the strengths perspective articulated by Dennis Saleebey and operationalized in Charles Rapp and Richard Goscha's strengths model, it surveys the client's life domains — such as daily living, health, finances, relationships, leisure, and spirituality — to record what is already working, what the person wants, and the personal and environmental resources available to get there. Those strengths then become the raw material for goal-setting and intervention.	In task-centered social work, task analysis is the qualitative procedure of breaking a client's agreed-upon goal into a sequence of concrete, accomplishable tasks, then examining what helps and hinders the completion of each. Rooted in William Reid and Laura Epstein's task-centered model, it turns a large or vague problem into a chain of small, reviewable actions for the client and worker, and treats the success or failure of each task as data for refining the plan. It is both a planning device and an analytic lens on the change process.