ASPA Center for Accountability & Performance

Performance Management
Seven keys to success to your agency’s next strategic review
Federal News Radio
Interview with Chris Mihm on best practices for carrying out strategic reviews outlined in a recent GAO report.
Cracking the code on past performance
Mark Rockwell, Federal Computer Week
By federal mandate, agencies must have an intricate understanding of a company and its performance before they sign a contract with it. It’s a laudable goal, but it has also produced daunting electronic and paper trails that contractors must navigate.
Measuring Up: How Can CIOs Take Stock?
Dan Chenok and John Kamensky, Business of Government
IT has made possible the availability of real-time data and the tools to display that data, which has boosted the use of data and evidence by government decision makers. But what about the use of performance metrics by agency CIOs themselves?
GE Had to Kill Its Annual Performance Reviews After More Than Three Decades
Max Nisen, Government Executive
The company that popularized the toughest form of formal annual review is moving away from them.
Can government be agile?
Jordon Sims, Federal Times
With a promise of faster and better outcomes for everything from start-ups to the labyrinthine federal government approach to services procurement, agile approaches are in the spotlight.
ICMA Recognizes Leaders in Performance Management
ICMA
ICMA has officially recognized 48 local governments for their leadership in continuous improvement through performance management initiatives.

Analytics/Evaluation
Commerce’s lean, agile Data Corps will focus on delivery
Aaron Boyd, Federal Times
To help support the department’s many missions, Commerce’s new chief data officer is putting together a team of software engineers to build the next generation of apps and solve critical data issues.

Collaboration
Public Leadership and the Collaboration Imperative
Frieda Edgette, Governing
To address today’s governance challenges, the tactical skills of effective collaborative public leadership are not only valuable, they are critical to success.

Customer Service
GSA designing, deploying tools to help agencies treat citizens as customers
Jared Serbu, Federal News Radio
OMB has told agencies to rethink the ways in which they interact with the public and undertake a more customer-focused approach. GSA says it’s here to help.
4 Myths of Citizen Experience
Josh Plaskoff, Nextgov
The government needs to revamp the way it interacts with citizens.

Innovation
Are Governments ‘Paying for Failure’ With Social Impact Bonds?
Liz Farmer, Governing
A social policy experiment is spreading across the country as a new way to finance, deliver, and improve public services and problems. But its merits are so far unproven.
The City of No-Frills Innovation
Jeremy Goldberg, Governing
Ten years after Katrina, New Orleans is solving municipal challenges and improving lives.

Performance Management
Why Evidence-Based Policymaking Is Just the Beginning
Susan Urhan, Governing
In delivering social services and other programs, measuring effectiveness is critical.
As Companies Shed Annual Reviews, Should Government Follow Suit?
Howard Risher, Government Executive
The point is not to reduce the focus on performance, but to reinforce it.

Analytics/Evaluation
Bipartisan Evidence-Based Policy Bill Passes House
Charles Clark, Government Executive
The House approved a bipartisan plan for a commission to expand use of agency data to evaluate the effectiveness of programs and tax expenditures.
The Next Big Thing in Data Analytics
Katherine Barrett and Richard Greene, Governing
As the amount of data that governments accumulate grows, so does the need to disaggregate it.
Behavioral Science’s Growing Role in Making Government Work Better
Sharman Haley, Governing
A stronger focus on human factors can go a long way toward improving public services.
Analytics Play Key Role in Boston’s Tech Modernization
Justine Brown, Government Technology
Boston’s Citywide Analytics Team is bringing the power of data to everything the city does.

Open Government
Agencies plow ahead with DATA Act despite big hurdles
Emily Kopp, Federal News Radio
The executive branch has gotten the DATA Act off to a good start, but persistent problems with the data itself threaten to undermine the financial transparency that the law is intended to achieve.
Data Act implementation hung up on definitions
Zach Noble, Federal Computer Week
Words, rather than numbers, are proving key to bringing all federal agencies together in the push for financial transparency.
Transparency advocate sees hope in 3 open-data initiatives
Emily Kopp, Federal News Radio
The DATA Act is forcing agencies to standardize their financial data, and Congress and regulatory agencies slowly are doing the same with legislation and regulations.

Risk Management
What exactly is enterprise risk management?
Douglas Webster, Thomas Stanton, Federal Computer Week
It’s more than simply rolling up the traditional risk management efforts — and it’s increasingly critical for agencies.

Innovation
Five Tips from Federal Innovation Entrepreneurs
John Kamensky, Government Executive
Nearly 200 enthusiastic innovators from more than two dozen agencies gathered to share ideas and inspire each other.

Management
The Best Transition In History
Alan Howze, Business of Government
Insights from a panel discussion on presidential transitions that emphasized the importance of focusing on management in the transition and early days of an administration.
Federal program management needs help
Mark Rockwell, Federal Computer Week
The National Academy of Public Administration has issued a white paper on lagging adoption of program management practices for large projects in the federal government.
How Government Can Get Better at Managing Big Programs
Tom Shoop, Government Executive
A new report plots a course for implementing improved techniques for managing complex programs.

Open Government
Good Ideas From Government’s Front Lines
Stephen Goldsmith, Governing
The people who deliver services directly to the public know a lot. Denver is setting the pace for tapping that resource.

Performance Management
How Do You Measure the Effectiveness of Government?
Paul Eder, Government Executive
Understanding the citizen’s perspective can drive quality data and decisions.

Efficiency/Reorganization
Veterans Affairs Deputy Teams with Boss on Corporate-Style Reforms
Charles Clark, Government Executive
Deputy Secretary promises “sea change” in managing for customer needs.

Leadership
What Kind of Leader Are You?
John Kamensky and Micheal Keegan, Business of Government
There are three types of leaders: strategic leaders, operational leaders, and network leaders.

Performance Management
Most Agencies Embrace Data-Driven Performance Reviews, Watchdog Finds
Charles Clark, Government Executive
Data-driven reviews of program effectiveness required under the GPRA Modernization Act can promote use of performance information by agency officials and produce improved results.
5 steps to a performance management culture
Robert Shea, Federal Times
Performance staff can learn from what other federal organizations have done to encourage dialogue, assess the value they provide to citizens, improve data collection and, ultimately, transform their organization’s performance culture.
First, admit you have a problem
Zach Noble, Federal Computer Week
Sometimes the bad news can be more important than the good news – if only the message is heeded.
Should Government Do Away With Annual Performance Reviews?
Stewart Liff, Government Executive
Real feedback happens more than once a year.

Analytics/Evaluation
Bad Data Is at All Levels of Government
Katherine Barrett and Richard Greene, Governing
States are not the only ones to lack the data they need to make good government.
The Next Big Thing in Data Analytics
Katherine Barrett and Richard Greene, Governing
As the amount of data that governments accumulate grows, so does the need to disaggregate it.
White House’s DJ Patil places laser focus on ‘unleashing the power of data’
Jason Miller, Federal News Radio
DJ Patil, the government’s first-ever chief data scientist, explains how his office is helping agency CDOs bring a ruthless focus to data.
OMB Pushes Interagency Collaboration to Modernize Statistics
Charles Clark, Government Executive
Regulatory chief seeks to eliminate ‘stovepiped’ information releases.

Efficiency/Reorganization
Here’s Our Chance to Fix Government Once and for All
Steve Goodrich, Government Executive
The Government Transformation Act would establish an entity to assess, transform and report on government programs, as well as eliminate or fix programs that aren’t working.

Leadership
Tiny White House leadership program targets government’s biggest challenges
Emily Kopp, Federal News Radio
A new White House Leadership Development Program is scheduled to launch this Fall with an inaugural class of 10 high-potential GS-15s who will work on the 15 cross-agency priority goals.