Table 5 Considerations and examples of analytical questioning for C & M(s) = > O(s) configurations

Context

Context configures:

• interrelations of actors and intermediaries,

• type of action taken or not taken by actors in practice change projects.

Clarification of context makes it possible to specify roles and responsibilities of various actors in feedback and clinical practice, their values, and their identity.

• Does the decision-making structure allow for the participation of professionals, to what degree, and for what theme?

• What are the associated imperatives or interests (e.g., for interrelationships, feedback, and clinical practice)?

Mechanisms

Controversies are inherently in feedback systems. They involve a variety of values, emotions, interests, actors, practices, identities, and responsibilities.

• How do actors intentionally act in these controversies?

• What are the different strategies for facing them or not?

• What are the central issues of these controversies and mediations?

• How can they be activated in order to reach convergences?

Outcomes

Feedback systems generate outcomes:

• some are measured by indicators and others do not,

• some generate certain and others uncertain outcomes,

• they transform or maintain the interrelations between actors,

• they generate paradoxical outcomes: e.g. result of an indicator may be satisfactory, but not the practice, or vice versa.

• What do these intermediaries say about the nature of a problem?

• Are they an entry point to a controversy or the definition of the problem?

• What is an acceptable or relevant indicator?

• To what extent is it shared or negotiated and with whom?

• What weight is given to qualitative or quantitative indicators?