Evaluation support in strategic decision making processes comparing tools and methodologie

The reasoning we will be proposing underlines a twofold meaning of the term evaluation: to evaluate “in order to program complex and integrated projects”; and to evaluate “in order to structure the analysis of complex transformation plans”. Implicitly we assume the distinction between a strategic and a tacticaloperational level: the first of these follows a negotiating procedure, while the second resumes classic methodologies concerning the analysis of investments: those are theoretical and empiricist references, which need to be analyzed in relation to the specific circumstances of the real estate context and the complex urban transformation plans in economic systems. First of all, it is necessary to clarify the frameworkof steps and instruments involved in the entire real estate development process, according to both private and public profiles, regarding the most recent complex planning procedures in Italy. The first part of the paper therefore focuses upon the role of assessments in the preliminary phase in supporting the decision making process and the delicate moment of briefing, which is absolutely necessary to shape and define strategic choices (policies, guidelines, programs) and also tactical operating choices (precise plans that put strategic choices into effect and make them operational). The second part of the paper underlines the importance of specific evaluation tools required to articulate complex analysis of transformations, to shape problems and to resolve them. Finally, we propose to examine the Strategic Choice Approach, a methodology aimed at managing uncertainties and developmental decision making processes, especially for public projects, which are applied with other analytical procedures.