There is confusion in outcomes and performance management systems as to the types of outcomes which you are allowed to include in any system. This is reflected in criticisms such as: "no, you haven't given us the type of outcomes we want, the ones you've specified are all too low-level, they're just outputs"; or, alternatively, "no, the outcomes you've specified are all too high-level, how will you be able to prove that it was you who made them change?" In discussions about outcomes systems, a range of different terms are also used for outcomes, and sometimes used in different ways: e.g. final outcomes, impacts, intermediate outcomes, strategic outcomes, priorities, key drivers, outputs, activities etc.
Systematic Outcomes Analysis cuts through the potential confusion caused by contradictory demands about the level your outcomes should be at and the many terms used in outcomes and performance management systems. It does this by using the outcomes theory principle that outcomes can have five major features, these features are:
Influenceable - able to be influenced by a player
Controllable - only influenced by one particular player
Measurable - able to be measured
Attributable - able to be attributed to one particular player (i.e. proved that only one particular player changed it)
Accountable - something that a particular player will be rewarded or punished for.
Using these features of outcomes enables us to be very clear about the type of outcome we are talking about when doing Systematic Outcomes Analysis. In particular, it lets us clearly specify which types of outcomes we will allow into outcomes models. The standards for drawing outcomes models used in Systematic Outcomes Analysis allow any influenceable outcome to be included in an outcomes model. This is in contrast to a number of types of outcomes models which try to keep outcomes to just attributable outcomes (ones which it can be proved one particular player caused). The more general type of outcomes model drawn in Systematic Outcomes Analysis is much more useful for strategic planning, monitoring, evaluation and contracting purposes. In Systematic Outcomes Analysis, attributable indicators and accountable outcomes are mapped onto the model at a later stage after the more general model is built.
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