Introduction to the Science of Delivery

Introduction to the Science of Delivery > Readings and Lectures > Introduction video

• This is a course about writing case studies and specifically about writing science of delivery case studies.
• I want to talk a little bit about what we mean by science of delivery case studies and then explain what topics the course will cover.
• Science of delivery is an idea that’s been on the table for a long time, but has recently enjoyed a resurgence.
• The big question is how do you study implementation? Well, case studies provide one vehicle for that.
• Implementation tends to be very sensitive to context, and the cases enable us to understand the influence of context, the steps taken, the importance of different operational details, management process in linking that policy to an outcome.
• The president of the World Bank, Jim Kim, has popularized this notion recently with his science of delivery initiative, and other countries have joined in.
• The objective now is to create a science of delivery case databank, a bank of case studies that will serve a number of important functions.
• One thing that science of delivery cases do is help us understand the causal mechanisms that might link an intervention or a policy to an outcome.
• Another function that science of delivery case studies serve is to help us evaluate how context influences the project’s success or the outcome of a policy.
• How might context make that policy or that project design not workable, or what steps can we take to adapt to a particular context? Third, science of delivery case studies can help us share experiences.
• Not necessarily that we’ll adopt that, it may not be a hard and fast lesson but it gives us food for thought and the case study draws people in, it helps us think about a new way to do things.
• A science of delivery case study also helps us capture tacit knowledge.
• So one objective of a science and delivery case is to actually tap that information, to put it in a form in which we can share it with each other.
• Another function of a science of delivery case study is to help teach new generations or even our own staff.
• Here at Innovations For Successful Societies at Princeton University, we produce such case studies.
• We know, because of what governments tell us, that many governments are actually using the case studies as historical memory and as a way to teach a new generation of staff members what the previous generation did, and to teach them about the policy they’re actually going to manage.
• We can also teach people at universities, using these cases, we can teach them in our own policy organizations, or in governments.
• Finally, a good science of delivery case study is very important to the people who expended the hard effort to make a project work.
• Another function that a science of delivery case can serve is to recognize the actual contribution made by many different individuals and to help create a partnership, a community of policy makers, of reform leaders around the globe.
• These functions are important to remember as you begin to write your own science of delivery cases.
• Or the research parts of development institutions and governments who say well we want to draw general insight from these case studies and think about some general proposals we can make on this basis.
• They want cases that are very clearly labeled with kinds of problems to be tackled, the actual solutions used, the kinds of alternative plausible explanations for the results.
• You have the skill to apply political economy concepts to the study of implementation.
• You’re probably already a very strong writer, and we’re just going to give you a few general points to remember for particular use in preparing these kinds of case studies.
• Process is really key in writing good science and delivery case studies.
• A third element of writing a good science of delivery case is to know not only who your audience is and what the goals are, what the functions of the case would be, but to have a really deep understanding of that case study template, of the research process and the kinds of strategies you can use to improve the quality of research and to understand the audience needs and the writing challenges that that presents very clearly.
• You’ll get to meet some users of science of delivery cases and you’ll hear them talk about what they value in these case studies.
• In the next segment, we’ll back up a bit and talk about in general what case studies are good for and what they’re not good for.
• There are a few science of delivery case study templates out there.
• They cover the same kinds of material and we want to compare and contrast them so you can get a stronger sense of the intellectual content behind each section of a science of delivery case.
• What goes into each section? Then we’ll talk about the research process.
• Then we’ll focus on interviewing because in a science of delivery case where you’re trying to tap that tacit knowledge, you’re going to be conducting a lot of interviews.
• We’ll introduce some standards, some stylistic standards as well as some organizational standards.
• We’ll talk about some work arounds when you have an unusual story that doesn’t seem to work too well with that template.
• You’re about to hear some very important writers, researchers, and editors as well as users talk about the use of science of delivery cases.