Peer replies should be a minimum of 130 words, include at least 1 direct question and add value to the discussion
Business Finance
STUDENT1: Danique
A good evaluation question must be reasonable and appropriate. It must address concerns of stakeholders and must provide meaningful information once time has been divested in the data collection. To be appropriate means to be relevant and attainable for seeking answer or resolve. The answerable questions have performance dimensions that are realistic to the program. The information can be gathered internally or use other social science and research to support evaluation as to the programs impact. A good question will require an assessment of the program process, program outcome, efficiency and question the overall theory of the program. Forcing those involved to ask the basic question of the specific need of the program. Our lesson states a question in a evaluation should be reliable, valid, interpret able and meaningful.
My experience with proposing an appropriate evaluation question was in regards to the Sexual Assault in the military. I learned that a complex problem, could not be confined to the stats of annual reporting. I learned that the data available did not provide the answer of whether sexual assault was increasing but brought information regarding the changes in program that attributed to the increased in reporting’s.
My evaluation question: Are Foster Care Programs in Washington State following best practices in regards to children aging out of the system?
Is question Objective: Yes, research on non-profit national organizations can be researched to learn best practices. A comparison of process can be conducted identifying if all best practices are implemented why and why not.
Is question Subjective: Yes, its subjective to the entire state, but can be reduced to city or county for more specificity.
STUDENT 2:
Good Day Classmates,
Black, Henley & Clute (2014) did an examination of 715 Army service contractor performance reports in contractor performance assessment reporting system (CPARS) to find answers to several questions, but the question most interesting to me was as follows: Are government contracting professionals submitting contractor performance narratives in accordance with CPARS guidelines. Currently assigned the roles and responsibilities as an alternate focal point and have in the past been an Assessing Official Representative in CPARS. It was not surprising that the Naval Postgraduate School thesis revealed that government contracting professionals needed to work on the performance narrative being built upon objective data and the Assessing Officials were better at writing narratives for unsuccessful vice successful contractors.
OUSD(AT&L) (2003) states, “The keys to effective past performance information are fairness, openness, and a commitment to using the information as a tool to improve contractor performance”. The past performance information (PPI) guide and the CPARS thesis referenced below have good questions and guidance to assist government contracting professionals in evaluating past performance for market research, source selection, and existing contracts. The questions in the CPARS were formulated by an Integrated Product Team of DoD representatives to assist in the collection and utilization of past performance. Utilizing a team of professionals to assimilate a series of good questions for performance and evaluation is a good practice and helps to streamline the evaluation process.
If the government sends out a questionnaire or conducts telephone interviews, it is important that it is timely, consist with the solicitation, and well documented. There are times that this is not the case and contractors have a reason to file a protest. It is a good practice to write out questions for contractors and have the government legal advisor and peer review the questions before releasing to the contractors. In my experience a good appraisal and evaluation question is an open-ended question relevant and in-line with the contracting/acquisition process for the specific requirement that cannot simply be answer by a Yes or No. For example, instead of asking a contractor if they can do a job, ask the contractor how they plan on doing the job and explain any past jobs of similar work.
William
References
Black, Black, S., Henley, J., & Clute, M. (2014). Determining the value of contractor performance assessment reporting system narratives for the acquisition process. Naval Postgraduate School. Retrieved from https://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a606848.pdf.
Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics. (2003). A guide to collection and use of past performance information. Retrieved from https://www.acq.osd.mil/dpap/Docs/PPI_Guide_2003_final.pdf.
