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Module C > Logic model  
 

Logical Planning models: Where to start?

Wouldn’t it be great to have all the important parts of your program in a text-based table or in a one page diagram so you could see how all the parts relate to each other? Could show it to partners? your Board? your funders?

That’s what an outcomes logical planning model provides: a way to show the links between program activities and services, the results they produce, and how the results (outcomes) will be evaluated.

So far, we’ve shown a simplified Logical Planning Model:  Needs + Solution -> Outcomes

Many different logical planning models are possible and helpful, and no one representation  is universally accepted. They can be represented as a one page graphic or rendered as a text-filled table. Remember that any representation is two-dimensional and static so it cannot show all the non-linear connections and feedback loops.

Our logical planning model

The Shaping Outcomes curriculum helps you to build the skills to complete a logic model worksheet (you've already filled out the few sections after going through Module B.) To help you visualize the relationships among the parts of the logic model worksheet, we also have a logical model graphic which you can see by going to the logical Planning Model.

Notice that the logical Planning Model graphic may look like a map because of the arrows, but it’s really more like a scale-model of a building—a way to show all the necessary parts. Even though we may still be in the planning stages, we can see how things will fit together and everyone working on the program learns the same names for the parts from the beginning. Notice that EVALUATION occurs throughout the process (as we explain in Module D).

Now let’s review what outcomes are and then we’ll add terms to help us build our logical planning model.

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