Communities Of Practice (CoPs)

A community of practice is a small group of people who work together over a period of time. People in CoPs can perform the same job, collaborate on a shared task, or work together on a product. They are peers in the execution of real work and share a common sense of purpose. There are communities of practice within a single company but also in a profession, and most people belong to more than one. Evaluators participate in communities of practice with other professionals and evaluators in performing evaluations and in promoting evaluation as a profession, such as through evaluation associations.