Live Labs blog: Hit your targets!
Monitoring and evaluation might not seem the most exciting aspect of a project, but it is critical.
For Live Labs, with its focus on scalability, shared learning and value for money, it is essential, both for the performance of each project and the programme as a whole. When done properly, the process provides vital feedback on progress, pinpoints areas that need support, as well as helping to identify and realise all the potential benefits.
On the 13th November, the Live Labs teams met up at WSP Indigo in London to find out how the labs will be evaluated throughout the programme. The session was led by Proving Services, who explained how the process would look for each project.
Proving Services was formed in 2003, by specialists from Cranfield University School of Management. Live Labs will benefit from Proving’s experience of working with a diverse range of companies, from media and communications to utilities, construction and engineering. The company has also been working closely with ADEPT members on their own benchmarking activities, making them the ideal candidates to support Live Labs.
The Proving team wanted to ensure all teams knew exactly how the assessments would take place over the course of each project. The evaluation criteria have been split into two categories, ‘attractiveness’ and ‘achievability’, giving the labs a clear set of markers against which each project will be assessed.
These markers were a catalyst for much discussion. Each Live Lab is inherently different, with a range of distinct trials and focused research and learning. With this in mind, the teams were keen to understand how each project could fit into the criteria. The discussions created a great atmosphere for knowledge sharing, with all teams gaining a deeper understanding of the whole monitoring and evaluation process.
Throughout December, Proving will be running workshops to give the teams their first chance to get hands on experience with the monitoring and evaluation tool. Find out how they got on next month!