PROCESS ANALYSIS AND DOCUMENTATION FOR UTILIZATION OF RESEARCH FINDINGS

This document reports on an investigation which surveyed process analysis and documentation concepts, practices, and standards in light of the need for communicating the processes and outcomes of educational research and development. The survey demonstrated that the areas of impartial process analysis and documentation are both important and neglected. The ability of people to implement programs is significantly impaired by the lack of understanding of what is really involved. In programs in which process is central, like career education programs, knowledge of how operations are brought into being is of equal importance to knowledge of the substance and effect of the program. Various recommendations based on the findings of the survey are made. These are aimed at three specific groups: the applicant organization wishing to undertake solving the problem at hand, the funding agency providing the resources to be used in the investigation, and the group undertaking process analysis and documentation. Appended to the report are a list of key concepts suggested by the research plan and a reprint of an article, ',Goal-Process-System Interaction i