Comparison of Community profile

From EvaluationWiki

A type or aspect of practical evaluation that was largely ignored in the early days of professional evaluation, and still is often done superficially. It concerns the extent to which it would be possible to obtain similar or better effects at the same or lower cost. Much of the practical value of Consumer Reports comes from the fact that it does almost entirely comparative evaluation, which tells the consumers the best way to spend their money, whereas a mere evaluation for merit gives you no idea which of the evaluands that aren't plainly hopeless or dangerous are the most sensible purchase. Doing comparative evaluation requires that the evaluator has a method for ranking the evaluands, which usually but not always requires a way to weight the various dimensions of merit (specifically, the various levels of performance on each dimension). This normally done via determining the extent to which the evaluand meets the needs of prospective consumers.