The reciprocal relationship between implementation theory and program theory in assisting program design and decision-making

Abstract

The focus of this article is how Theory Driven Evaluation (TDE) and two of its central tenets-program theory and implementation theory-can be simultaneously used to inform and assist programmatic decision-making. The article argues there is a paucity of evaluation literature demonstrating how program theory can be beneficial to the design and interpretation of implementation theory. A case example is used to illustrate the importance of program theory in developing and interpreting implementation theory. © 2013 Canadian Evaluation Society.