When appropriate, staff members also meet separately with top officials in agencies affected by an evaluation or review. At this meeting, known as an opening conference , staff members outline the scope of the project and request access to official records. State law gives the division access to any record, document, or information needed for its work. All working papers from an evaluation or review are confidential until a final report is released. Most projects require extensive field work, during which two or three staff members collect data from agency files, interview agency staff, and observe program operations and service delivery.
Projects usually take six to nine months to be completed.
Some studies rely heavily on statistics and numerical measures, such as financial or service delivery records. In other cases, statistical data are unavailable or inappropriate to use in a research project, and staff members must rely on qualitative information gathered through in-depth interviews with program managers or clients. This kind of information is often hard to gather and interpret, yet it is sometimes the only way to study a problem. At the completion of research, staff members prepare a report draft and share it with the agency. Next, they hold a formal closing conference with agency management in order to hear the agency's response.