PEW: ‘Dances with Budgies’: The Development of the Planning and Evaluation Wizard—a Cautionary Tale

Abstract

The following account is based on the reflections of the authors¹ of the Planning and Evaluation Wizard (PEW), a software tool produced by the South Australian Community Health Research Unit (SACHRU), which aims to assist project officers working in primary health care. Accessible from the SACHRU website² or on CD-ROM, PEW takes the user through the steps of developing grant applications, project and evaluation plans, (including budgets) and project reports.

PEW provides practical suggestions as users progress through the stages, based on the experience of project officers, SACHRU staff, and drawing on relevant literature.

This paper is a cautionary tale of hope, struggle, compromise and endurance, a tale where the PEW protagonists were drawn into a series of prolonged and contorted ‘dances’ in the honourable pursuit of developing a software tool to enhance evaluation in primary health care³.