When to use Causal Map
So, you’ve taken a look at the features of the app, and you’re getting excited about creating maps – but is your project right for it?
Use Causal Map if you:
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have a relatively large amount of narrative data (enough to provide at least 20-30 causal links).
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need help to organise a large number of links and summarise them into an overview or synthesis.
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have information from more than one source (for example different respondents, different documents, or different places in one document) and the information about the source is important to you: they aren’t all interchangeable.
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are interested in possible differences between the sources and groups of sources – and/or you don’t necessarily have a preconceived idea of the contents or boundaries of the map.
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want to capture what your sources actually say, systematically and transparently.
Causal Map map is not suitable if you:
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only have a relatively small map which you can manage with traditional tools for drawing network diagrams (e.g. PowerPoint, kumu.io etc.).
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need to analyse quantitative data and/or need to do precise mathematical modelling, e.g. of future states of a system under certain conditions.
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would like to sketch out a plan (e.g. Theory of Change or similar) without much reference to the different sources underpinning each link.