Outcome Mapping

A boundary partner is an individual, group or organisation that the program interacts with directly and can realistically influence — sitting at the boundary of the program's sphere of direct influence. They are the actors whose changed behaviour the program treats as its results, as distinct from the ultimate beneficiaries the program hopes those partners will in turn help. Defining boundary partners precisely is central, because Outcome Mapping deliberately limits its claims to changes in actors it can actually affect.

Outcome Mapping is primarily a forward-looking planning and monitoring framework: it sets out intended boundary partners and progress markers in advance and tracks behavioural change against them. Outcome Harvesting is largely retrospective: it gathers evidence of outcomes that have already occurred, including unanticipated ones, and works backward to assess the program's contribution. They share a focus on behavioural change in actors and are often used together, with mapping guiding intent and harvesting capturing what actually emerged.

Because for the complex, influence-based programs it was designed for, ultimate impacts are produced by many actors and forces, making honest attribution to a single program impossible. Rather than make unsupportable impact claims, Outcome Mapping defines results as the behavioural changes the program can plausibly contribute to in its boundary partners. This is a deliberate choice for credibility and learning; where genuine impact measurement is feasible and required, it must be paired with other designs.