ASPA Center for Accountability & Performance

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.

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.