ASPA Center for Accountability & Performance

Performance Management
Avoiding Complacency Risks: Make SMART Goals SMARTer
InnovateGov
The “SMARTness” of a goal is not always dependent on its content; rather how it is assigned and implemented is also important.
Diagnosing HealthCare.gov’s performance issues
Andreas Grabner, Federal Computer Week
Lessons learned that show why agencies must rethink system testing and the need for a more proactive approach to performance management.
Making Strategic Decisions
John Kamensky, Business of Government
Decisions vary along two dimensions – control and performance – and within each dimension, they range from high to low. This results in four types of decisions.

Analytics/Evaluation
Demand for data-driven models supplies agencies with decision making power
Jason Miller, Federal News Radio
How data-driven decision making is getting to be the driving force behind spending and program strategies.

Innovation
How the Government is Innovating (And You Can Too)
Gadi Ben-Yehuda, Government Executive
Lessons from what the government is doing today to prepare for tomorrow.

Open Government
DATA Act passes U.S. House of Representatives
Alex Howard, E Pluribus Unum
One of the most important bills for open government in the U.S. since the Freedom of Information Act of 1967 has passed the House. Now, attention goes back to the Senate.
Who Invented the Hackathon?
Colin Wood, Government Technology
Hackathons have been around for at least 14 years, but some people are still on the fence as to whether they deliver real value.

Performance Management
PIOs unearth the real value of data, analysis
Jason Miller, Federal News Radio
Agency performance improvement officers are helping mission offices look beneath the data to find the real impact of their programs.
How to make performance management work
Emily Jarvis, GovLoop
Interview with former OMB official Robert Shea.
Performance Management: The Real Research Challenge
Shelley Metzenbaum, Public Administration Review
Practitioners can benefit significantly from research that reveals how significant changes in outcomes result from variations in practices.

Analytics/Evaluation
Geek Cities: How Smarter Use of Data and Evidence Can Improve Lives
The Bridgespan Group
This report details how cities are using hard data and evidence to steer funding decisions and set priorities.
From Data to Decisions 3: Lessons from Early Analytics Programs
Partnership for Public Service
Lessons learned from long-standing data-driven efforts on how to start and sustain an analytics-based programs.
How to Get Past the ‘Big Data’ Hype
Charles Clark, Government Executive
Report suggests tying analytics to mission-critical goals and giving rank-and-file employees access.
White House announces big data partnerships
Frank Konkel, Federal Computer Week
The White House has unveiled several new partnerships among federal agencies, private companies, academia, state and local governments and nonprofits designed to deploy big data against many of the country’s big problems.
Predicting Famine Through Analytics
John Kamensky, Business of Government
Starving children have depended on warnings made by a federal interagency group that has worked together for more than 25 years to help international aid groups by predicting where famines in remote regions are occurring.

Innovation
Taking on the Risk of Government
Dan Chenok, Government Executive
Managing and communicating risks effectively can enable mission 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.