The number of questions depends on an evaluation’s purpose and goals, and the type of questions being asked. It is important that before you launch a survey, you test it with a sample to ensure it is understandable and reasonable in length. Ideally, surveys should take no longer than 15 minutes for respondents to complete.

There are many things to keep in mind when creating an evaluation plan, but some considerations are the program/project goals, the evaluation questions that need to be answered, who the key stakeholders are, program/project activities, outputs, outcomes, and any challenges or other factors that may affect the program.

Impact assessment should be considered early in planning, and its timing should be carefully considered. It should not be conducted too early because there may not have been enough time to develop longer term impacts, while if conducted too late, the impacts may be declined. The assessment should be conducted when its intended use is clear and its findings used for necessary decisions.

The process is similar to how research analysis would be conducted, in that an evaluation and coordinating analysis plan would be developed early on in project planning, both tied to key analysis questions that drive the methods used.

The major advantages of longitudinal analysis are that you can assess change or show clear patterns, as there are multiple time points of data collection. The major disadvantages are that this type of study takes longer to do, is more expensive, and is more limited in terms of breadth of experience.