ASPA Center for Accountability & Performance

Performance Management
How to take control of federal performance management
Liam Ackland, Federal Computer Week
Six steps human capital officers can take to improve performance at agencies.
The Importance of Logic Models and Theories of Change
Social Solutions
Logic models and theories of change should be viewed as an essential tool for supporting program design, management and evaluation.
Measuring What Matters
Marc J. Holley, Cheri A. Recchia, Valerie Bockstette, Stanford Social Innovation Review
The need to determine how best to allocate limited resources requires generating robust performance measures that drive accountability, learning, and impact.

Analytics/Evaluation
Government data is ‘weird’
Zach Noble, Federal Computer Week
The mandated dive into government data is revealing surprising value to agencies, but it comes with rigorous reporting that runs deeper than a typical audit.
What a Brown Delivery Truck Could Teach Government
Stephen Goldsmith, Governing
The technology that UPS uses to optimize its routes and achieve big savings shows how powerful data analytics could be across the public sector.
Reconsidering Evidence: What It Means and How We Use It
Lisbeth Schorr, Stanford Social Innovation Review
The tide that has swept experimental program evaluation to the forefront of knowledge building about social policy is suddenly ebbing.

Innovation
Sticky-note strategy: How federal innovation labs borrow from Silicon Valley
Carten Cordell, Federal Times
The government has started to use human-centered design to develop new policy solutions with a multifaceted group of stakeholders that can contribute a well-rounded slate of expertise. The product is a strategy that is developed from the creative thoughts of a team of experts, rather than a single specialized source.
Public Leadership and the Gift of Time Well Spent
Feather O’Connor Houstoun, Governing
Civic innovation can improve the way government works, but it needs a long runway.
The state of pay for success in 2015
Urban Institute
Recent developments in PFS.

Presidential Transition
How One Group is Trying to Prevent Procrastination on Presidential Transition Planning
Charles Clark, Government Executive
Exactly one year before the next inauguration, a major good-government group on Wednesday announced the formation of a unique and permanent resource center on presidential transitions.
What role career feds can play during the upcoming presidential transition
Nicole Ogrysko, Federal News Radio
Civil servants should actively approach the new leadership and remind them what the agency does and the work they do.

Performance Management
New Year’s Resolution: Use Goals and Measurement, But Wisely
Shelley Metzenbaum, Government Executive
One challenge in using goals is doing so in ways that inspire, rather than frustrate or discourage. A second is making sure pursuit of a goal does not lead to actions that create new problems.

Efficiency/Reorganization
Real Lean Is Not Just About Cutting Costs
Robert Behn, Government Executive
Government’s purpose is not to cut costs. Its real purpose is to produce results that citizens value. And when doing anything, public executives must “always start with purpose.”

Innovation
The Innovation the Grantmaking Process Needs
Beth Noveck and Andrew Young, Governing
The way governments give out money to solve problems is stuck in the past.
Civic Labs: Improving Public Services From the Bottom Up
Kendra Smith and Kevin Desouza, Governing
Innovation platforms are springing up all over, engaging citizens in the process. Government’s challenge is to manage and nurture them.
Government on the Go
John Kamensky and Susan Wedge, Business of Government
Apps are increasingly becoming an avenue for how citizens interact with their government. Government-created or –supported mobile apps offer “on-the-go” services such as finding and paying for parking spaces, reporting potholes and damaged streetlights, and checking restaurant health safety violations.

Presidential Transition
You can never start a transition too early
Zach Noble, Federal Computer Week
The wheels are in motion for the next handoff of presidential power in 2017, and while government has plenty to do, outside partnerships are forming a key part of the “let’s not mess this transition up” coalition.

Performance Management
A New Standard for What Works in City Government
Stephen Goldsmith, Governing
Bloomberg Philanthropies is providing a useful roadmap for results-oriented governance.
Why Performance Pay Is Just the Beginning
Charles Chieppo, Governing
Plenty more could be done to transform public workforces into meritocracies.

Analytics/Evaluation
Why the feds should use behavior science to improve services
Julia Featherstone, Federal Times
A recent executive order issued by President Barack Obama in September has the potential to significantly reshape the design and delivery of government services.

Customer Service
GSA’s Citizen Services get high marks in survey, but ‘ease of use’ lags
Zach Noble, Federal Computer Week
A new survey alerted the Office of Citizen Services and Innovative Technologies to weak points in their offerings – and helped them focus on keeping things easy for users.

Efficiency/Reorganization
Government Transformation Boosters Want Another Commission
Charles Clark, Government Executive
An ambitious new commission could materialize next year if Congress passes the Government Transformation Act.

Open Government
The White House is Violating Its Own Transparency Policy
Charles Clark, Government Executive
Open government groups press OMB on delayed agency guidance.

Strategic Planning
Strategy Is About Tough Decisions
Alan Pentz, Government Executive
Strategy is all about making choices.

Performance Management
Presidential Hopefuls Should Debate Government Management, Says Volcker
Charles Clark, Government Executive
Presidential candidates should be made to devote an entire debate to the management of government, former Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker says.

Analytics/Evaluation
Unlocking the Potential of the “What Works” Approach to Policymaking and Practice: Improving Impact Evaluations
Robert Granger and Rebecca Maynard, American Journal of Evaluation
Describe three ways to make impact evaluations more useful to policy and practice.

Innovation
Public-Sector Innovation and the Culture Factor
Erin Latham, Governing
Front-line workers know what needs to be done to make government more efficient. Encouraging them to share their ideas is critical.
How CIOs Can Enable Innovation
Tim Pavlick, Business of Government
The successful application of CIO-enabled innovation within the federal government offers a sustainable way to improve the effectiveness, efficiency and performance of government while often also reducing costs.
AFSCME, Progressive Groups Criticize Pay for Success
Patrick Lester, Social Innovation Research Center
One of the nation’s largest public sector unions released a report criticizing pay-for-success and social impact bonds.
The Don’ts and Do’s of Pay for Success/Social Impact Bonds
Jon Pratt and Ruth McCambridge, Nonprofit Quarterly
Is it time for a reevaluation of PFS?

Open Government
10 Ways to Capitalize on Transparency’s Potential
Paul Eder and Hudson Hollister, Government Executive
10 real benefits government agencies can expect if the implementation of the DATA Act goes well.

Analytics/Evaluation
Using Data and Evidence to Move the Needle on Social Problems
Patrick McCarthy, Governing
Rather than relying on aggressive policing and incarceration, these tools could help us find better ways help those left behind.
The Use of Rapid Evaluation Methods to Improve Performance (Part 2)
EvalWise
While performance data are used on an ongoing basis to monitor the quality of service provision and outcomes, rapid evaluation methods can use these same data to support short-term studies to drive improved performance.
Evidence at the Crossroads Pt. 5: Improving Implementation Research
William T. Grant Foundation
In an environment where effective programs are often adopted and implemented in new contexts, is it time to focus on implementation research that can support this adoption?
Measuring Social Impact: The Nuts and Bolts of Making a Difference
Knowledge@Wharton
How can we weigh different investments and predict which will be successful? How is success measured? And is there still a role for traditional philanthropy?
The evolving role of the chief data officer
Aisha Chowdhry, Federal Computer Week
Chief data officers are still finding out where they fit into agency plans and hierarchies.

Innovation
18F, Digital Service are here to stay, CIO says
Mark Rockwell, Federal Computer Week
The new in-house IT consultancies at GSA and OMB will likely outlast the Obama administration, according to federal CIO Tony Scott.

Open Government
Making Agencies More Transparent
Sarah Veale, Michael O’Neill, Erik Kjeldgaard, The Public Manager
Transparency can play a big role in monitoring and tracking agency progress on goals. A new GAO study details the effectiveness of six agencies in reporting on the quality of their performance information.

Presidential Transition
Making Decisions in a Time of Transition (Part II)
Dan Chenok, Business of Government
By being thoughtful and intentional in their approach, leaders can accelerate the achievement of the new elected president’s priorities, reduce risk, and increase the capacity of agencies to deliver on mission objectives.
2016 Presidential Transition Already Under Way, Think Tank Says
Charles Clark, Government Executive
With surveys showing trust in government at record lows, it’s not too early to begin an orderly and nonpartisan transition to the next presidential administration and begin rebuilding faith in agencies.