ASPA Center for Accountability & Performance

Efficiency/Reorganization
Initiative aims to find and fix federal inefficiencies
Frank Konkel, Federal Computer Week
The Government Transformation Initiative, a coalition of corporations and nonprofits seeking to improve government operations, is pushing legislation that would create a federal board with the authority not only to assess operational practices within agencies, but provide actionable solutions to Congress and the president.
Watchdog: Pentagon’s Efficiency Effort Lacks Proper Metrics
Charles Clark, Government Executive
Budget cuts and lax metrics have slowed a three-year-old push by the Defense Department to track its efficiency initiatives, the Government Accountability Office reported.

Innovation
Challenge.gov claims innovation honor
Federal Computer Week
The General Services Administration’s Challenge.gov, which uses contests to engage with the public and spark new ideas, is the winner of the Innovations in American Government Award.

Open Government
Agencies ‘open the door’ to innovative uses of social media
Shefali Kapadia, Federal News Radio
More than 60 social media apps are now available to agencies, allowing them to select the best method to meet their missions.

Analytics/Evaluation
Getting in the big-data game
Frank Konkel, Federal Computer Week
The rapid growth of available information presents opportunities for the U.S. government — the largest holder of information in the world — but getting into the big-data game poses serious challenges for individual agencies.
Rigorous program evaluation on a budget: An interview with Jon Baron, President, Coalition for Evidence-Based Policy
Andy Feldman, GovInnovator Blog
How can public leaders and program managers gain rigorous, useful insights into program effectiveness at a modest cost? A report by the Coalition for Evidence-Based Policy, “Rigorous Program Evaluations on a Budget,” offers suggestions.

Innovation
Pay for success not services
Emily Jarvis, DorobekInsider
Pay for success builds on pay for performance but alters it slightly. Instead of paying for delivery of services, for output, government only pays when providers delivers outcomes.
Innovation in the City of Austin
Innovategov
Many local governments are embracing innovation initiatives that have become commonplace in the private sector. Budget pressures and constituent expectations are pushing government leaders to act. From interactive citizen smartphone apps to appointed officials responsible for driving innovation, the changes in government are encouraging.

Open Government
GAO: Agencies need to improve IT Dashboard data
Frank Konkel, Federal Computer Week
A new GAO report suggests a need for more accurate and timely data flowing to the federal IT Dashboard if the Office of Management and Budget is to properly manage IT investment risk.
Key Transparency Fund Survives in Spending Bill
Gavin Baker, Center for Effective Government
The Electronic Government Fund (E-Gov Fund) will receive a slight boost in funding from recent years, while still falling short of the administration’s funding request.
Government Can’t Do It All, But the Public Can Help
Debra Decker, Government Executive
Government cannot tackle all of the nation’s problems, and it recognizes the need for more help. More agencies should consider an appeal to the public — an approach that leverages citizen problem-solvers. It’s a promising innovative practice that some in government are just starting to embrace.

Performance Management
Measurement, Management, and Leadership
Bob Behn Performance Leadership Report
Performance measurement is not the same as performance management. And neither is the same as performance leadership. For the operational questions about measurement, management, and leadership that public executives must answer are quite different.
When Government Pays for Success, Not Services
John Grossman, Government Executive
Since the world’s first pay for success project launched in the United Kingdom three years ago, the idea of governments “paying for success” using innovative public-private partnerships has sparked the development of pilot projects around the world.

Analytics/Evaluation
Four things to watch in big data
Frank Konkel, Federal Computer Week
Big data is growing in usefulness. What then can we expect in 2014?

Efficiency/Reorganization
OMB Directs Agencies to Embrace ‘Value Engineering’
Charles Clark, Government Executive
In its first such update in two decades, the Office of Management and Budget has revised long-standing guidance instructing agency managers to adopt the private-sector discipline known as “value engineering” to boost innovation and achieve savings.

Innovation
Report: Administration mulls new federal IT unit
Adam Mazmanian, Federal Computer Week
Fallout from the botched rollout of the HealthCare.gov website could include major changes to the way the federal government hires IT personnel and manages large scale IT projects.

Open Government
Four Roles for Citizen Co-Creators
Gadi Ben-Yehuda, Business of Government
A new IBM Center report explores how citizens are participating in co-creation of government services and how public sector leaders can develop programs that make use of their time and talents.
What Is the Public’s Role in Government?
John Kamensky, Business of Government
The Clinton Administration promoted customer service. The Bush Administration expressed sympathy for taxpayers. The Obama Administration has advocated citizen engagement.

Analytics/Evaluation
Army, Navy using big data to increase energy savings
Frank Konkel, Federal Computer Week
The Army and Navy are using big data analytics to identify energy savings opportunities in more than 650 worldwide facilities, with a target of making half of all Navy buildings net-zero energy by 2020.

Efficiency/Reorganization
OMB Unveils Best Cost-Cutting Ideas
Tom Shoop, Government Executive
OMB has announced the four finalists in the Obama administration’s annual SAVE Award competition, recognizing federal employees who come up with innovative cost-cutting ideas.
OFPP updates rules for how agencies should analyze ways to lower costs
Jason Miller, Federal News Radio
The Office of Federal Procurement Policy is reinvigorating the concepts of lowering life-cycle costs of programs by analyzing all facets of the approach.

Innovation
Public Sector Innovation Officers: A Growing Trend
Innovategov
Organizations are beginning to appoint innovation officers and institute offices of innovation, innovation centers of excellence, and innovation labs.
With the ‘Needipedia,’ DIA aims to lower barriers for innovators
Nicole Blake Johnson, Federal Times
DIA launched the initiative late last month as a means to express its needs to a larger community of innovators. Individuals, companies and academia can submit ideas and proposals for grants or contracts through an open broad agency announcement, based on DIA’s specific needs. Those needs are articulated on the Needipedia website and replace the traditional request for proposal process.
Six Trends Driving Change in Government: Examples of Agencies Leveraging Change
Dan Chenok, Business of Government
Outlines newly funded studies from the Center for the Business of Government, as well as some examples of agencies who are leading the way forward.
Government by design: Four principles for a better public sector
McKinsey & Company
Making progress on society’s biggest problems requires governments to make better use of data, involve citizens, invest in employees, and collaborate with other sectors.

Open Government
OpenGov: We’re number two!
Federal Computer Week
The United States has the second highest score of any country on the Open Data Barometer.

Strategic Planning
Required Reading: Agency Strategic Plans
John Kamensky, Business of Government
In early 2014, for the first time federal agencies will simultaneously submit refreshed strategic plans to Congress, covering the next four years.

Analytics/Evaluation
Reducing fear-driven responses to program evaluation: Paul Decker, President of Mathematica Policy Research and outgoing President of APPAM
Andy Feldman, GovInnovator Blog
How can public leaders encourage greater use of program evaluation to learn what works and to improve outcomes for citizens? One important part of the answer is to address the frequent fear associated with program evaluation.
Better cost data can mean bigger cost savings
Nicole Blake Johnson, Federal Times
Cost data, when it is captured, can vary widely among departments and even bureaus and sub-agencies within the same department that are buying the same things. But the General Services Administration, at least among its customer base, is hoping to change that.

Leadership
Trend Six: Leadership
Michael Keegan, Business of Government
Governments today face serious, seemingly intractable public management issues that go to the core of effective governance and leadership. Government leaders are presented with difficult choices, but also unprecedented opportunities. The right kind of leadership approach and style can drive change in government.

Open Government
White House unveils new open-government goals
Adam Mazmanian, Federal Computer Week
The White House unveiled a new take on its open-government policy that includes consolidating Freedom of Information Act requests across agencies, updating policies governing federal websites and upgrading the way people can petition the executive branch.