Figure 4 represents this relationship through the ideal flow of results. Each project employs people, purchased inputs and some forms of technology. These constitute the inputs. Customers can be taxpayers, other government agencies or internal agency personnel who receive or use the products and services. The outcomes are the effects of the output on the customers.
Impacts are the long-term effect of the outcomes.
The cloud around the impacts indicates that the impacts are difficult to discern. Semantically, it is difficult to distinguish between long-term outcomes and impacts. There is a direct relationship between the level of input and the level of outputs. Outputs lead to outcomes but the relationship is less direct than inputs to outputs. Outcomes lead to impacts but the relationship is often negligible, if existent, and difficult to determine.