ASPA Center for Accountability & Performance

Performance Management
The Trends Defining Federal Performance Management in 2014
John Kamensky, Government Executive
Government executives seem to be finding ways to more effectively integrate performance management into the decision-making processes and culture of government, within—and increasingly across—agencies and programs.
Focusing a social service agency on results and improved outcomes: An interview with Reggie Bicha, Executive Director of the Colorado Department of Human Services
Andy Feldman, GovInnovator Blog
How can a social service agency, whether at the state or local level, create an organizational culture focused on results? How can it create ongoing, meaningful conversations among agency leaders and staff that drive meaningful improvements?

Innovation
New Report: Federal Ideation Program: Challenges and Best Practices
Gadi Ben-Yehuda, Business of Government
A new report offers case studies, strategies, and tactics to help agencies generate, evaluate, select, and implement ideas.

Open Government
Feasibility of DATA Act questioned even as Senate committee OKs it
Jason Miller, Federal News Radio
But some agency leaders who would be charged with implementing the bill are unsure the DATA Act can be brought to life successfully.
As the DATA Act goes up for markup in Senate, will its Recovery.gov model survive?
Alex Howard, E Pluribus Unum
A proposed amendment to the DATA Act, however, is facing opposition from the same good government groups that supported its passage in the House.
Kansas City Measures Performance through Online Dashboard
Jason Shueh, Government Technology
In a push for accountability, Kansas City has launched a public dashboard to demonstrate progress on city goals with live metrics.

Performance Management
Looking ahead at key challenges and opportunities for government
Dan Chenok, Business of Government
The Center has released their latest report on key issues facing public sector leaders and stakeholders: “Six Trends Driving Change in Government.”
Do we over measure in government?
Emily Jarvis, GovLoop
Discussion with Martha Johnson, former administrator of GSA, on the promise and pitfalls of performance measurement.

Analytics/Evaluation
DHS unleashing data analysts to improve investments
Jason Miller, Federal News Radio
A new management initiative at the Homeland Security Department aims to turn data into decision-making power.
Building an evidence base for agency programs: An interview with Chris Spera, Chief Evaluation Officer, Corporation for National and Community Service
Andy Feldman, GovInnovator Blog
How can a public agency start to build an evidence base about what works for its programs?

Innovation
Collaborative Innovation: A Viable Alternative to Market Competition and Organizational Entrepreneurship
Jean Hartley, Eva Sørensen, Jacob Torfing, Public Administration Review
This article analyzes three strategies for innovation: market competition; organizational entrepreneurship; and collaborative governance.
Implementing Open Innovation in the Public Sector: The Case of Challenge.gov
Ines Mergel and Kevin Desouza, Public Administration Review
Federal managers are employing a new policy instrument called Challenge.gov to implement open innovation concepts invented in the private sector to crowdsource solutions and leverage collective intelligence to tackle complex problems.
Innovation Fellows describe their reality check
Troy Schneider, Federal Computer Week
While progress is being made, agency buy-in remains an uphill battle.

Performance Management
The White House’s Original Sin: A Failure of Effective Management
Norm Ornstein, Government Executive
Commentary on challenges related to administration and execution within the executive branch.
Senate Confirms OMB Management Deputy
Charles Clark, Government Executive
The Senate approved Beth Cobert, President Obama’s nominee to be deputy director for management at OMB.
Approaching Public Administration from a Complexity Perspective
Peter K. Marks and Lasse M. Gerrits, Public Administration Review
Events are complex when they are not comprehensible, generate unexpected outcomes, or have different impacts on multiple levels and change over time. Over the past two decades, ideas, concepts, and theories from the complexity sciences have been adapted to public administration.

Analytics/Evaluation
State’s Use of Cost-Benefit Analysis: An interview with Gary VanLandingham, Pew-MacArthur Results First Initiative
Andy Feldman, GovInnovator Blog
Interview with Gary Van Landingham on the Results First initiative, launch in 2011 to help states strengthen their ability to use cost-benefit analysis.

Performance Management
Moving from Process to Practice in Performance Management
Robert Shea, Government Executive
Agencies are showing they get how to leverage performance data.
How agency heads are measuring to manage
Steve Kelman, Federal Computer Week
Kelman’s research suggests that performance management is finally becoming ingrained in federal agencies — especially those with outstanding leaders.
Local perspectives on PerformanceStat: An interview with David Gottesman, Montgomery County, Maryland, and Greg Useem, City of Alexandria, Virginia
Andy Feldman, GovInnovator Blog
The “stat” approach, also called “PerformanceStat,” is a results-focused leadership strategy probably best known from CitiStat in Baltimore, but also used by dozens of local, state and federal offices and programs.
Baltimore’s Outcome Budgeting Approach
John Kamensky, Business of Government
Budgets, and budget reform, are sensitive topics at the moment, but it might be worthwhile to take a longer view of the issue to see what might be possible in the future, given the experiences of states and cities that have undertaken significant reforms.
What Does Performance Management Look Like in India?
John Kamensky, Business of Government
India has designed a performance management system with interesting parallels and differences from the U.S. performance management system that has evolved under the Government Performance and Results Act.

Analytics/Evaluation
Important tools for evidence-based decision making: An interview with Margery Turner, Urban Institute
Andy Feldman, GovInnovator Blog
What are some of the key tools that that policymakers and practitioners can draw on to to inform and strengthen decisions?

Collaboration
Four Elements That Promote Effective Coordination
John Kamensky, Business of Government
The successes and failures of U.S civil-military reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan serve as the basis for lessons learned in creating effective inter-agency coordination.

Open Government
The Future of Online Citizen Services
Gadi Ben-Yehuda, Business of Government
Which types of online customer-support tools currently used by the private sector will be adopted by government agencies?

Performance Management
Performance Management: Moving from Process to Practice in Performance Management
Partnership for Public Service
Results of a new survey that found PIOs at most large agencies have advanced their performance management efforts, setting up the building blocks of a performance improvement culture and gearing up to make better use of data for decision making. But most of the action is taking place at top agency levels and has not filtered down.
What Is Successful Government
Patrick Ibarra, Governing
It’s not easy to determine what constitutes quality public-sector performance. Finding the answers to some crucial questions is the most important step toward a disciplined approach to high-performance government.
Brookings Launches Center to Improve Public Management
Charles Clark, Government Executive
Its “Democracy Hub” will link academics and policy influencers in a new peer-to-peer network for the sharing of ideas and data. And a “FixGov” online blog will offer recommendations from Brookings scholars and outside contributors while incorporating “crowd-sourced information from the federal workforce on best practices and areas for government improvement.”

Analytics/Evaluation
3 ways big data is transforming government
Bill Cull, Federal Computer Week
The technology of big data is important, but openness and stakeholder input are what really make a difference.
Predictive Analytics: How to Prevent Crime from Happening
John Kamensky, Business of Government
Police departments across the U.S. are piloting crime prevention programs that rely on a smart analysis of historical crime data in neighborhoods across their cities.

Open Government
DATA Act gains Senate ally
Adam Mazmanian, Federal Computer Week
A bill to standardize and structure government spending data, a version of which has already moved through committee in the Republican-led House, is getting an assist from a prominent Democrat.
Enhancing Accountability and Increasing Financial Transparency
Senate Budget Committee
Senator Warner noted that the GAO recently released a report that called for Congress to pass legislation to improve federal financial transparency. The report stated that with more than $1 trillion awarded by the government annually through contracts, grants, and loans, “improving transparency of spending is essential to improve accountability.”