ASPA Center for Accountability & Performance

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.

Analytics/Evaluation
Carter Hewgley, FEMA: Conversations on Using Analytics to Improve Mission Outcomes
Brian Murrow, Business of Government
The Director of Enterprise Analytics for the Federal Emergency Management takes an iterative approach to maturing strategic analytics with FEMAStat.
How New Mexico uses evidence to drive smart funding decisions and improve programs
Andy Feldman, Gov Innovator Blog
In recent years, New Mexico has become a leader in using cost-benefit analysis to inform policy and budget decisions.
Army changing its energy culture through better data
Jared Serbu, Federal News Radio
The Army has been installing advanced electric meters on most of its major buildings over the last several years, and views the metering program as a valuable tool that will inform its future energy management programs.

Collaboration
The Ebola crisis: An enterprise leadership challenge
Ron Sanders, Federal Times
The Ebola crisis offers an example of the need for enterprise leadership, defined as the ability to lead a complex constellation of organizations that may include federal, state, and local government agencies, as well as international and non-government organizations and even other governments, all towards some common goal.
How to form coalitions of action
James Windle, Federal Times
The ideal “coalition of action” includes agency leadership, relevant White House councils and offices, and the committees with jurisdiction in Congress. Support from senior levels is always necessary.

Innovation
Creating Innovation Offices That Work
Gadi Ben-Yehuda, Business of Goverment
A new report, “A Guide for Making Innovation Offices Work,” details the models, methods, and metrics of how government agencies are incorporating innovation into their bureaucracies.
The White House’s Digital Fixit Man Talks Culture Change in Government
Jason Shueh, Government Technology
Mikey Dickerson speaks out about leading the U.S. Digital Service agency and how he and his team are working to usher in a culture change in the public sector.

Performance Management
10 ways to improve program management
Shefali Kapadia, Federal News Radio
The author examines best practices for acquisition program managers, but which are more broadly applicable as well.

Analytics/Evaluation
Malcolm Bertoni, FDA: Conversations on Using Analytics to Improve Mission Outcomes
Brian Murrow, Business of Government
Malcolm Bertoni, Assistant Commissioner for Planning at the Food and Drug Administration, shares the important elements of a successful analytics program and a road map for getting there.
Using opportunistic experiments to learn what works: An interview with Peter Schochet, Senior Fellow, Mathematica Policy Research
Andy Feldman, Gov Innovator Blog
How can the public sector make the most of opportunities to learn what works — in other words, to fill knowledge gaps about effective policies and practices? “Opportunistic experiments” are an important tool for doing that.

Leadership
Some Presidential Management Fellows Find Their Agencies and Managers Lacking
Kellie Lunney, Government Executive
While the program still remains overwhelmingly popular, agencies and supervisors fell short when it came to providing opportunities for professional learning and growth, fostering a work environment that allowed for creativity and communicating effectively.