Terry Smutylo's Impact Blues

Following on an earlier post about a food safety scholar/performer, and several earlier posts about program evaluation theory for U.S. food programs, this song is so funny I had to listen to it twice: Terry Smutylo's Output Outcome Downstream Impact Blues (recorded June 2004).

The blues singer is, by day, a scholar who argues for "outcomes" studies in place of "impact" analysis. The distinction is that project funders want "impact" analyses to prove the value of their funding, while Smutylo argues it is more realistic to study the "outcome" of an agenda without attempting in vain to prove scientifically the impact of any particular program. Smutylo's book is called Outcome Mapping.

(Thanks to Friedman School colleagues for the link suggestion.)