Keep the components of your plan manageable so they can be handled well within those time limits. When making decisions about which evaluation questions to focus on, you should consider when you will need the information. The resources you have available may influence your evaluation plan more than any other single factor. Even if you expect to integrate evaluation into the program or if the evaluation will be conducted by volunteers or the participants themselves, you will need to allocate time for planning. Involving volunteers or participants is a way to spread the workload, but it may require time for preparation or training.
Some activities require financing.
Sometimes we need outside expertise to help with certain parts of an evaluation. Constructing the instrument or analyzing the data may require such help. Or, there may be others with a lot of experience and knowledge related to the program from whom you could learn. We discuss this issue more completely below. When deciding which evaluation questions to answer, you need to consider the resources available for actually conducting the evaluation.