[DSRP Evidence](https://dsrpevidence.org/)

# A Tool for Implementing DSRP in Programme Evaluation

## Details

**Authors** Hummelbrunner R

**Year** 2008

**Publisher** Evaluation and Program Planning 31(3):331-333

**Kind of work** article

**Discipline** Systems Science

**Secondary disciplines** Public Policy

**Reading level** intermediate

**Kind of engagement** scholarly

[Read it at the publisher](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evalprogplan.2008.04.009) 
10.1016/j.evalprogplan.2008.04.009

## In authors' words

### What they set out to do (purpose)

An applied methodological paper mapping DSRP onto a systemic program-evaluation framework Hummelbrunner had already used in practice, particularly on regional-development and European programs. More practice-grounded than a theoretical commentary, though not a controlled test.

### What they found (results)

Hummelbrunner concludes that his systemic framework can implement DSRP in program evaluation — defining evaluation boundaries, specifying relationships, structuring parts and wholes, and making perspectives explicit. He gives concrete applications and argues that a common systemic framework improves shared understanding among stakeholders.

## Commentary

### In short

Very strong applied support, and the most practice-grounded response in the set. Hummelbrunner states his agreement with the importance and utility of the four rules and presents a systemic framework from his own practice that closely corresponds to them — reporting that he has used it in a number of programme evaluations. Real-world implementation evidence, though the paper measures no effects.

### In more detail

Hummelbrunner begins by agreeing explicitly with the importance and usefulness of DSRP. His framework represents a program as a system embedded in a socioeconomic context: objectives, inputs, outputs and impacts, and the mechanisms linking them, with environmental influences considered explicitly.

He then maps that structure onto DSRP. Distinctions establish evaluation boundaries; relationships specify interactions among components and context; system-making structures inputs, outputs, mechanisms and nested components; perspectives capture the standpoint from which the program is represented and evaluated. He reports using the framework in multiple evaluations and describes applications to European programs under diverse conditions — a concrete route from the abstract rules to an operational method.

### Response

Hummelbrunner reports a systemic evaluation framework he had already used on regional development and European programs, and sets out how it corresponds to the four rules. The correspondence is described by a practitioner accounting for existing practice rather than by someone adopting the theory.

**Patterns it shows** D, S, R, P

**How to cite this** Hummelbrunner R (2008). A Tool for Implementing DSRP in Programme Evaluation. Evaluation and Program Planning 31(3):331-333.