Analytics/Evaluation
Interview with Nick Hart: New Evidence-Based Policymaking Initiative
Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management
Nick Hart is the director of The Bipartisan Policy Center’s new Evidence-Based Policymaking Initiative.
Pay for Success and the Savings Trap
Jake Segal, Governing
Making the conversation about government effectiveness and positive outcomes.

Innovation
Is Your Agency Ready to Solve Its Problems?
Mohana Ravindranath, Nextgov
A Stanford University team has come up with an algorithm assessing whether agencies are ready for solutions to the challenges they face.
White House sketches plans to staff its modernization efforts
Derek Johnson, Federal Computer Week
The White House’s Office of American Innovation is looking to set the stage for IT modernization efforts under the Trump administration by establishing a quartet of research centers, each dedicated to a core aspect of modern technology.

Management
A Blueprint for Improving Government’s HR Function
Howard Risher, Government Executive
The Baldrige Performance Excellence Framework offers federal personnel leaders a guide for transforming agency operations, as well as the HR function itself.
Hardly any federal employees are fired for poor performance. That could be a good sign, report says.
Eric Yoder, Washington Post
The low rate at which federal employees are fired for poor performance doesn’t prove the government accepts it but instead “could actually be a positive sign,” the agency that decides appeals of discipline against federal employees has said.

Open Government
HHS issues code-a-thon challenge to combat opioid crisis
Jessie Bur, Federal Times
The Department of Health and Homeland Security announced that it will be holding a code-a-thon to find data-driven solutions to the opioid health epidemic.