Describe four basic issues that should be considered prior to selection of an evaluation procedure.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

The following four basic issues should be considered prior to the selection of an
evaluation procedure:
(a) Who will use the information and what is their viewpoint? A clear definition
of whose viewpoint is being considered in the evaluation is necessary if proper
consideration is to be given as to how the stakeholders will be impacted, either
positively or negatively, by each proposed alternative.
(b) What are the relevant criteria and how should these be measured? A
transportation project is intended to accomplish one or more goals and objectives.
These are measured as criteria, and the numerical or relative results for each
criterion are called measures of effectiveness. It is important that the criteria be
related as closely as possible to the stated objective in order to properly evaluate
each alternative.
(c) What measures of effectiveness are to be used in the evaluation process itself?
One approach is to convert each measure of effectiveness to a common unit, and
then for each alternative compute the summation for all measures. A common unit
is money, and it might be possible to make a transformation of the relevant
criteria to equivalent dollars and then compare each alternative from an economic
viewpoint. Another common unit approach is to convert each measure of
effectiveness to a numeric score. Otherwise, the measures of effectiveness can be
simply reported for each alternative in a matrix form with no attempt made to
combine them. The measures of effectiveness must not only be relevant to the
problems but should be easy to measure and be sensitive to changes made in each
alternative.
(d) How well will the evaluation process assist in making a decision? The
decision maker will want to know what the costs of the project will be. This alone
will usually determine the outcome. Also of importance is if the benefits justify
the expenditure of funds for transportation or would the money be best spent
elsewhere. The decision maker will also want to know if the proposed project is
likely to produce the stated results. The evaluation process requires that engineers
have all the appropriate facts about a proposed project and be able to