Advisory Note 1. Using the Logical Framework Approach in Practice

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Using the Logical Framework Approach to turn strategic goals into successful projects involves implementing a two stage process:

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• The Strategic Thinking and Planning Stage

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• The Project Design and Management Stage

 

There are six critical strategic questions that need to be answered during this two stage process, namely: 

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• Why are we undertaking the project?

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• What are we trying to accomplish and why?

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• What will success look like?

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• How will we measure success?

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• What critical assumptions and risk factors do we need to identify and take into account?

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• How do we get there?

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Set out below is a summary of the approach we adopt in collaboration with the client, project partners and key stakeholders to complete the two stage process and in turn answer the six strategic questions and develop a successful project.

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Stage 1. Strategic Thinking and Planning

 

The first stage in the process of developing a new project involves asking the question "why are we undertaking the project?".

 

Answering this question involves consideration of what are a project’s ‘goals’ and ‘purpose’. A project’s ‘goals’ should relate to the overarching ‘big picture’ strategic intent and rationale for this and any related projects, as outlined in a related strategy. A project’s ‘purpose’ should relate directly to reason for a specific project, the desired changes expected after the project’s deliverables are in place and the benefits that will arise.

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Stage 2. Project Design and Management

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The second stage in the process involves considering ‘what’ a project must produce, ‘how’ it will get there, ‘who’ will be responsible for its delivery and ‘when’ it will be delivered. 

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In terms of 'what a project must produce', the question that needs to be answered is "what are we trying to accomplish?". This relates to a project’s ‘outcomes’. In other words, 'outputs' are what a project needs to make happen to enable it to achieve its identified ‘purpose’. There are two critical points to make about a project's 'outcomes'. Firstly, for a project to be successful it is necessary to ensure that the outcomes will achieve a project’s assigned purpose. Secondly, for each specific project it is important to consider what are the necessary and sufficient set of outcomes that will enable a project’s purpose to be achieved.

 

When designing a project, it is not just about deciding on its purpose and what it will achieve, it is also important to ask "what will success look like?". This is necessary, because without knowing the answer to this question, it will be difficult to determine whether a project was a success or not. Therefore, an important part of this stage in designing a project is to determine how one will measure 'success'. To do this requires identifying and agreeing a number of success measures, which will determine the expected level of accomplishment. This could involve using quantity, quality, time, and cost indicators.

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Another important question to answer when designing a project  is "when we will know if a project has succeeded?". This involves considering how we will measure success. The process of measuring success involves deciding what means will be deployed to monitor progress during the implementation of the project and evaluate its achievements. These will help verify whether the tasks undertaken have delivered the required outcomes and achieved its stated purpose and goals. We believe it is important that agreement on the most suitable approach and design of a monitoring and evaluation system to be employed for a specific project should be reached during the initial stages of the project design process. In this way, important decisions can be taken that may influence the design and implementation of that project. For example, this includes deciding on what questions about a project need to be answered by the monitoring and evaluation process, what performance indicators will be used and therefore what data is needed to measure performance, how will the data be collected and analysed and how will the results be disseminated.

 

It is also important to consider what critical assumptions will need to be made, in terms of dependencies, interfaces, policy considerations, resources, market factors, as well as the risk factors that will need to be assessed.

 

The final question to be asked using the Logical Framework Approach is "how do we get there?". The answers arrived at when following the stages outlines above, in terms of a project's outcomes, what success will look like and the measures of success to be employed, will help answer the important question of 'how' a project will be delivered. A key priority here is the preparation of a project plan. A project plan should describe the specific project ‘inputs’ required to make a project happen. These include the 'tasks' (activities) to be undertaken to deliver the required outcomes and the financial and human resources necessary. It should also identify 'who' will be responsible for undertaking the tasks and 'when' these tasks will be delivered (an implementation schedule). Relevant project management tool and processes will help ensure that the tasks selected can deliver the outcomes required.

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The LogFrame Matrix

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To assist the collaborative approach of implementing the two stage process and answering the six strategic questions highlighted above, we guide participants through a process of completing what is known as a simple Logical Framework (LogFrame) Matrix, similar to the one illustrated below.

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The matrix helps take participants through each of the six strategic questions and looks in turn at each of the projects four key objectives (relating to the project’s goals, purpose, outcomes and inputs). The key below shows the relationship between the six strategic questions to the project’s objectives.

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This Logical Framework Approach is especially recommended for use when adopting a collaborative cross-sector approach to designing and developing projects. It helps promote active engagement, involvement and ownership amongst stakeholders because they can experience being part of a creative process and have a hand in developing something tangible. It is also a user-friendly approach as it is not dependent on complex software or programmes, nor requires the use of complex language and is logical in its implementation.