David Parsons is a programme evaluator with over 30 years’ experience of independent public policy analysis in the UK, Europe and internationally. He is also Visiting Professor at Leeds Beckett University, Principal Consultant at P&A Research and Consulting, and Programme Lead for evaluation practitioner training at the UK’s Social Research Association.

• Part 1: Starting Points1. Why purposeful evaluation?Part 2: Setting the Foundations2. Defining the purpose3. Managing evaluation objectives and expectations4. Managing the ethical dimensionPart 3: Choosing the Right Method5. Understanding the choices6. Process evaluation7. Economic evaluation8. Fully experimental impact evaluation9. Quasi-experimental impact evaluation10. Theory-based impact evaluation11. Meta-evaluationPart 4: Putting it in Place: Preparation into Delivery12. Preparation and groundwork13. Managing challenges and deliveryPart 5: Presenting and Mobilising Evidence14. Delivering the evidence15. Optimising evaluation influence

"Academics should read Purposeful Evaluation because it offers a strong teaching text for applied evaluation and because it frames evaluation as an interdisciplinary practice involving methods, ethics, organizational judgment, and communication. Practitioners should read it because it offers an honest account of the constraints under which evaluation occurs: imperfect timing, limited resources, shifting stakeholders, contested evidence, and decision windows that can close quickly." IEEE Professional Communication Society