The evaluation profession has been studying ways of increasing the use of evaluations. Here are some of the things we've learned are important for evaluations to be useful: being clear about intended uses by primary intended users; creating and nurturing a results-oriented, reality-testing culture that supports evaluation use; collaboration in deciding what outcomes to commit to and hold yourselves accountable for; making measurement of outcomes and program processes thoughtful, meaningful, timely, and credible — and integrated into the program; using the results in a visible and transparent way, and modeling for others serious use of results.
