One of the difficulties in social work lies in finding forms of evaluation
that suit the various kinds of work people actually do. There is a need for
methods that allow a valid and rigorous evaluation of process as well as o
utcomes, particularly in new areas of work. A valuable example of such eval
uation evolved at St. Luke's, a voluntary agency in Victoria, Australia, th
at used design evaluation to articulate a new model of practice. Design eva
luation involved having the evaluator work with staff to describe work prac
tices as a series of stages with associated principles. This process of doc
umenting, clarifying, and illuminating the model led to its progressive ref
inement and concurrent improved services delivery to clients. Testing the p
rogram model with clients provided some valuable feedback about its effecti
veness. This form of evaluation is complementary to outcomes evaluation and
can also provide the information needed for a subsequent outcomes evaluati
on.