The fourth step in Systematic Outcomes Analysis is identifying indicators which are attributable to a particular player (the Attributable Indicators Building Block - Indicators[att]). These are routinely collected measures of an outcome where their mere measurement allows one to reasonably attribute any change in the indicator to the actions of a particular player. You may have already identified a number of these when you were identifying your not-necessarily attributable indicators in the previous building block. Remember, the previous building block dealt with not-necessarily attributable indicators, not definitely not attributable indicators. It may be that you do not need to do this fourth building block at an early stage in your Systematic Outcomes Analysis. This is because in many instances, the issue of attribution only comes in at the time when you are thinking about accountability. It may be that you are happy to have identified your indicators and at this stage you can skip this building block and come back to it in the future. For instance, you might need to do it when you have to work out who is accountable for what, for instance when you get around to contracting, or delegating, parts of your outcomes models to others for them to implement.
Step 4.1 Identify any attributable indicators and map them onto the outcomes model
4.1.1 Identify any attributable indicators. It is likely that in identifying the not-necessarily attributable indicators in the previous section you will have already identified a number of indicators (or perhaps all of them that you are interested in) which can be attributed to particular players (remember the indicators in the previous section were not-necessarily attributable indicators rather than definitely not attributable indicators). This fourth building block consists of simply identifying who particular indicators could can be attributed to. The further down you have drilled into an outcomes model, the more likely you are to have attributable indicators appearing. As stated above, assigning attributable indicators to players is only something you have to do if you are thinking about performance management, accountability and contracting. In some cases you might not need to bother to assign attributable indicators and just work with your set of not-necessarily attributable indicators identified in the previous section.
4.1.2 Map attributable indicators back onto the outcomes model. If you have identified new attributable indicators (rather than just deciding that some of the not-necessarily attributable indicators you identified in the previous section are able to be attributed to particular players and identifying them as such) you should now map the new indicators you have found onto your outcomes model. The benefits of mapping indicators onto your outcomes model discussed in the previous step are the same for attributable as for not-necessarily attributable indicators.
Step 4.2 Decide on further indicator measurement
4.2.1 Decide which indicators to continue measuring and which to stop measuring. Having mapped your attributable indicators back onto your outcomes model you now have a clear idea of which outcomes are, and which are not, being measured. You can now decide which attributable indicators you are going to continue measuring and which you are not going to measure in the future. For instance, you may find that you can stop measuring some lower level indicators because there is a higher level attributable indicator above them which when you measure it, will pick up the lower level indicator measurements.
Step 4.3 Think about the evaluation implications of how high up the outcomes model your attributable indicators reach
4.3.1 Examine how high up the outcomes model attributable indicators reach for its implications for evaluation. If your attributable indicators reach to the top of your outcomes model (not normally the case in the real world projects where people use Systematic Outcomes Analysis) then from a theoretical point of view, you do not normally need to do outcome evaluation (the fifth building-block in Systematic Outcomes Analysis). This is because the mere measurement of attributable indicators implies that they have been caused by a particular player. There is therefore no need to use outcome evaluation to establish that a particular player/intervention caused high-level outcomes. This situation should not be confused with the common mistake in performance management systems where the mere measurement of indicators even where they are not attributable, is taken to show that a program is improving high level outcomes. It only applies to attributable indicators. Avoiding this mistake is exactly why the distinction is made in Systematic Outcomes Analysis between attributable and not-necessarily attributable indicators.
Step 4.4 Identify any issues and turn them into indicator projects
4.4.1 Identify what needs to be done regarding attributable indicators and turn them into indicator projects. These projects will need to be prioritized alongside the other projects coming out of your Systematic Outcomes Analysis.