ASPA Center for Accountability & Performance

Performance Management
Delivery Units Around the World
John Kamensky, Business of Government
A new report from the Inter-American Development Bank examines the increased attention by Latin American and Caribbean countries on using tools and techniques, such as Delivery Units that report to the heads of government, are an effective way to strengthen the coordination and improve results.

Analytics/Evaluation
Big Data: It’s About Complexity, Not Size
Josh Helms, Business of Government
Organizations that do not necessarily have a large volume of data can benefit from a better understanding of the art of the possible with the new generation of analytic tools designed for big data.

Risk Management
Risk Management for Grants Administration
Dan Chenok, Business of Government
A new report examines the experience of the U.S. Department of Education in implementing risk management initiatives, with a focus on grants.

Performance Management
A new model for program management
Richard Spires and Thomas Ragland, Federal Computer Week
Creating governmentwide Program Management Centers of Excellence could save countless programs that are otherwise doomed to fail.

Analytics/Evaluation
Social Programs That Work
Ron Haskins, New York Times
The Obama administration has been pursuing an important initiative to use evidence to improve social programs.
How Will Government Adapt?: Finding and Funding What Works
John Kamensky, Business of Government
Summary of a panel discussion that explored efforts to increase government effectiveness through the use of rigorous evidence about what works.

Collaboration
Understanding the “New Power” Trend
John Kamensky, Business of Government
In the 1990s, a new model of governance emerged – Reinventing Government. This model was rooted in private sector entrepreneurial approaches and market-like incentives. A new model – dubbed “New Power” – has emerged in the 2010s.

Customer Service
Enhancing the Citizen Journey Is a Government Imperative
Thomas Romeo, Government Executive
Expectations have grown for the citizen journey—the experience a person has when seeking government assistance, from beginning to end—and it is imperative that agencies deliver.

Innovation
Empowering a New Wave of Government Innovation
Robert Shea, Government Executive
Lessons from the digital age of community, creativity and collaboration.

Leadership
Ten Secret Truths About Government
Donald Kettl, Washington Monthly
What we can learn from the management mistakes of Obama and Bush.

Performance Management
OMB Trumpets Progress on Tracking Contractor Performance and Other Cross-Agency Goals
Charles Clark, Government Executive
According to OMB, cross-agency priority goals continue to guide agency management improvements and are producing “notable progress and success.”

Analytics/Evaluation
GAO: Using Program Evaluations for More Effective Management
Innovategov
A recent GAO study identified activities that are useful in building capacity to conduct and use program evaluations.
Strengthening evidence-based grant making at the U.S. Department of Education: An interview with Jim Shelton, Deputy Secretary of Education
Andy Feldman, Gov Innovator Blog
In recent years, the Department of Education has made important advances in encouraging evidence-based grant making, including focusing a larger share of discretionary grant dollars on approaches backed by rigorous evidence of effectiveness and facilitating more evidence building among grantees. What lessons does the Department provide other public agencies?

Collaboration
Creating a Cadre of Cross-Agency Executives
John Kamensky, Business of Government
President Obama recently proposed a new White House Leadership Development Program, with the goal of exposing rising leaders to the experience of solving challenges across agency boundaries.

Leadership
Why Every Agency Needs a Chief Management Officer
Robert Behn, Government Executive
Every public executive—appointed or elected—needs a chief management officer responsible for ensuring the jurisdiction or agency is operating competently.

Open Government
Can Transparency Be Legislated?
Paul Eder, Government Executive
Making standardized data available is step one. Developing leaders who drive a culture of motivational and interpretational transparency around the data is step two.
What is the return on investment for open government?
Alex Howard, E Pluribus Unum
What’s the business case for open government?

Performance Management
OPM proposes changes to SES performance standards
Ginger Whitaker, Federal News Radio
OPM has proposed changes to performance standards for Senior Executive Service members. that would clarify and update the three-year-old performance appraisal system and provide more oversight.
The Public-Administration Quandary: ‘Who’ vs. ‘What’
Feather O’Connor Houstoun, Governing
In the end, it’s usually better to define what a service should be before deciding who should deliver it.

Analytics/Evaluation
Making Data Real – Lessons From and For Federal Leaders
Robert Gordon, Business of Government
Ways to be successful, and hurdles to be mindful of, when beginning an analytics initiative.

Innovation
Doubling Down on the Innovation-Team Model
Stephen Goldsmith, Governing
Another 14 cities are about to build their own “i-teams.” No longer an experimental approach, it’s a proven route to cross-cutting accomplishments.

Open Government
Agencies have a long way to go to reach data-centricity
Jason Miller, Federal News Radio
Agencies are beginning to understand how best to meet the requirements of the White House’s open data policy from May 2013, with several agencies realizing what’s needed is a combination of policy and action.

Performance Management
Avoid Getting Caught in the Quagmire of Key Performance Indicators
Robert Behn, Government Executive
Searching for the ‘best KPI’ is just another substitute for thinking.
Escaping the deficit trap
Donald Kettl, Baltimore Sun
Kettl encourages Governor-elect Hogan to continue Maryland StateStat.

Efficiency/Reorganization
Who Will Be the Next “Mayor of the Pentagon?”
John Kamensky, Business of Government
The selection of the next Secretary of Defense is in the headlines. But there’s a new senior-level Defense position that will be important in coming years, and who is appointed will matter.
DoD’s ‘vertical integration,’ effort to further pare administrative costs
Jared Serbu, Federal News Radio
Deputy Defense Secretary Robert Work thinks DOD can find more efficiencies by carefully examining business operations as an integrated whole, rather than simply giving each principal staff agent another arbitrary savings target they must meet.

Innovation
‘Paying for Results’ at a tipping point?
Steve Kelman, Federal Computer Week
Kelman showcases a new report that shows just how widespread outcome-oriented contracting has become.
Challenges and prizes: Procurement vehicle of the future?
Colby Hochmuth, Federal Computer Week
How NASA and other agencies are using contests to bring better ideas into acquisition.

Open Government
White House crowdsources open-government playbook
Emily Kopp, Federal News Radio
The Obama administration is “walking the walk” on government transparency by asking the public to help write a guide for agencies on ways to engage the public.