ASPA Center for Accountability & Performance

Performance Management
Can Presidents Be Managers?
Paul Posner and Beryl Radin, Government Executive
Presidents who bask in the policy limelight are surprised and puzzled when their support erodes.

Analytics/Evaluation
Writing the Book on Moneyball Government
Charles Clark, Government Executive
Assembled by a pro-data nonprofit called Results for America, a new book profiles organizations that have successfully embraced evidence-based decision making.
Next Steps in Moneyball Government
John Kamensky, Business of Government
Two recent reports, a new book, and a newly introduced bill in Congress all contribute to a steady momentum toward evidence-based decision making.
Five ways to bridge evidence-based policy & innovation: A video overview
AndyFeldman, Gov Innovator Blog
New efforts in the U.S. federal government have helped to bridge the divide between evidence-based policy and public sector innovation.

Collaboration
6 Key Elements of Successful Cross-Agency Collaboration
Alan Pentz, Government Executive
Working across agency lines can be frustrating without a strategy.

Innovation
Sivak: It’s about ‘changing the way we do things’
Mark Rockwell, Federal Computer Week
In the Entrepreneurs-in-Residence program, HHS matches project teams with outside tech experts to work for a year on innovative projects.

Open Government
Taking ownership of the Data Act
Colby Hochmuth, Federal Computer Week
GAO and Treasury representatives told lawmakers that implementation of the Data Act is about to enter a crucial phase.
Make open data actually work
Christine Carmichael, Federal Computer Week
The public’s demand for transparency means agencies must share data in ways that the average person can understand. Here’s how.

Performance Management
What Performance Management Is and Is Not
Robert Behn, Government Executive
The phrase is often used when all anyone is doing is collecting data.
With Big Data Comes Bigger Goals
Mark Funkhouser, Governing
Today’s performance management tools eliminate the old ways of thinking about what government can and can’t do.

Analytics/Evaluation
Watchdog: Budget Cuts, Lack of Centralized Authority Hurting Program Evaluation
Charles Clark, Government Executive
Agency efforts to incorporate more evidence in program evaluation are uneven, in part because many lack a central authority and in part because budget cuts have crimped attendance at relevant professional conferences.
GAO: Agencies not using performance data to decide policy, budget changes
Jory Heckman, Federal News Radio
A summary of GAO’s recent report on agency evaluation practices.
Three Key Ingredients to Build an Investigative Analytics Unit
Brian Murrow, Business of Government
Steve Beltz is the Assistant Director of the Recovery Operation Center of the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board, which provides transparency of ARRA-related funds and detects and prevents fraud, waste, and mismanagement of those funds.

Innovation
Measuring the Impact of Public Innovation in the Wild
Beth Noveck, Governing
A foundation-backed “research institution without walls” is studying new strategies for tackling tough problems.
Innovation: It Isn’t for Everyone
Colin Wood, Government Technology
A new paper shows that innovation isn’t a solution, but another project that not everyone is ready to manage.

Analytics/Evaluation
President’s Data Boosters Push Management Agenda
Charles Clark, Government Executive
OMB and GSA officials seek a legacy of evidence-based performance.
Using Big Data Analytics to Effectively Oversee Financial Markets — The Three Essential Ingredients
Brian Murrow, Business of Government
The SEC’s Center for Risk and Quantitative Analytics looks for potentially suspicious patterns of stock transactions.
How cities are using data to improve outcomes and save money: An interview with Stephen Goldsmith, Professor, Harvard Kennedy School
Andy Feldman, Gov Innovator
Cities are linking data across agencies, analyzing patterns and using predictive analytics, using data to target services or enforcement to get better results, and maintaining a strong focus on outcomes and not just activities.

Efficiency/Reorganization
Interview with GAO’s Chris Mihm on Federal Program Inventory
Federal News Radio
The federal government is supposed to be four years into an effort to inventory all the programs it runs. But that effort hasn’t made it very far.
VA and the office of redundancy office
Jeff Neal, Federal News Radio
Redundancy has many costs and not all of them are financial.

Innovation
Turning Governments into Innovation Machines
Kevin Desouza, Governing
The key is “intrapreneurship” — establishing a public-sector culture that rewards disruption from within.
Conversations with Prof. Sandford Borins on The Persistence of Innovation in Government
Federal News Radio
What does the landscape of public sector innovation look like and what does this mean for innovators and those who study their efforts? How do awards programs promote innovation efforts? How can a climate for innovation be created in public organizations?

Strategic Planning
Magnifying the Voice of the Future
John Kamensky, Business of Government
Can leaders in a democracy think beyond the next election? This is a key question posed by a New Zealand academic, Jonathan Boston, who is studying how different countries attempt to address long-term risks to society, the environment, and fiscal sustainability.

Performance Management
Assessing Government Performance through the Lens of Public Sector Workers
Michael Lipsky, Public Administration Review
A review of Charles Goodsell’s new book, The New Case for Bureaucracy, which seeks to “transcend stereotypes about the agencies of administration that do the work of government in this huge country.”

Analytics/Evaluation
Gerald Ray, Social Security Administration: Conversations on Using Analytics to Improve Mission Outcomes
Brian Murrow, Business of Government
Applying analytics to a continuous process of improvement.

Efficiency/Reorganization
Fixing the Useless Federal Program Inventory
John Kamensky, Government Executive
To cut duplicative programs, agencies have to know how to count them first.
Effort to Root Out Duplicative Federal Programs Hits a Roadblock
Charles Clark, Government Executive
Because agencies use different terminology, their inventories of programs have limited value, GAO finds.

Open Government
Is E-Gov Really Delivering?
Tod Newcombe, Government Technology
It didn’t evolve as pioneers planned, but government’s move to digital has been revolutionary.

Analytics/Evaluation
Dean Silverman, IRS: Conversations on Using Analytics to Improve Mission Outcomes
Brian Murrow, Business of Government
Dean Silverman, Senior Advisor to the Commissioner in the Office of Compliance Analytics for the Internal Revenue Service, maps analytics to business values.

Collaboration
Lessons from a successful research-to-practice collaboration: An interview with Carolyn Heinrich, Professor, University of Texas-Austin
Andy Feldman, Gov Innovator Blog
How can partnerships between the public sector and academic researchers help programs and policies to achieve significantly better results?

Customer Service
A Mixed Verdict on Customer Service at Five Agencies
Charles Clark, Government Executive
GAO found that that all five agencies provided customers with opportunities to submit feedback, including comments and complaints, but none of the agencies’ standards included all of the key elements of customer service standards—goals, measures and transparency.

Innovation
Cobert: Technology, innovation key to OMB’s management agenda
Michael O’Connell, Federal News Radio
Technology is transforming daily life and agencies need to harness that innovation to make government work better.

Open Government
New Socrata Benchmarking Study Details Open Data Attitudes Across the U.S.
Michael Grass, Government Executive
80 percent of federal-, state-, county- and city-level government respondents indicated that they will invest the same or more in open data within the next six months.