Potential barriers to an effective needs assessment include the following. First, the existence of limited resources is a great a challenge to an effective needs assessment. Limited resources will reduce the time required to complete a program evaluation. Similarly, the needs assessment would not adequately address the intended issues (Magyar, 2011). Second, poor planning is critical in the completion of a comprehensive needs assessment. When the organization enters into an assessment without adequate considerations for each phase involved, the process is likely to fail. Third, with inadequate preparations, the evaluation team might find it hard to carry out an effective needs assessment. Inadequate preparation can be due to academic deficiency, lack of training and experience (Magyar, 2011).

Some of the possible solutions that would help the evaluation team overcome these barriers include the following. First, the assessment committee should ensure that they recruit a team that has expertise in conducting a comprehensive needs assessment. The team should have experience and adequate knowledge to complete the task (Healey & Zimmerman, 2010). Second, if the organization has limited resources such as finance and staff, they should first review existing and secondary data sources to determine the population they will target. Similarly, the organization can decide to obtain a grant to finance the operations. Third, before entering into an assessment, the evaluation team should provide a detailed plan for conducting an effective needs assessment. The team should understand each phase and approach the task systematically

Reference

Healey, B. J., & Zimmerman, R. S. (2010). The new world of health promotion: New program development, implementation, and evaluation. Sudbury, Mass: Jones and Bartlett Publishers.

Magyar, C. I. (2011). Developing and evaluating educational programs for students with autism. New York, NY: Springer.

 
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