ASPA Center for Accountability & Performance

Equity: The State of the States

Barrett & Greene

A guest column by Marilyn Rubin and Katherine Willoughby examines state equity efforts by researching agency websites, annual and performance reports, and program information in the 50 states.

Marrying Data-Informed Management and the Budget

Government Finance Research Center

Cheriene Floyd, chief data officer for the City of Miami, FL, writes: “A common practice is for government departments to report performance metrics at regular intervals, often every month or every quarter.  I applaud this discipline. The predictable reporting cadence enables the review of metrics with every annual budget request. But even though the practice is in place, the results that it should deliver are often missing in action.”

Quarterly Update of the Biden-Harris President’s Management Agenda

U.S. Office of Management and Budget

This quarter’s updates include new dashboards on customer experience feedback data, increased transparency for time to hire, as well as new acquisitions tools that make it easier for agencies to purchase services equitably, and more.

Strategic Foresight in the U.S. Coast Guard

Homeland Security Today

This article delves into five transformative technologies and trends that hold the potential to reshape the landscape of maritime security and environmental stewardship for the U.S. Coast Guard.

Performance Management Includes Storytelling

Results for America

“Storytelling and making data accessible to everyone is one of the most important things we do here at the City of Dallas. Communicating with our community through data stories is one of the most impactful ways to change how someone interacts with data about their City,” said Chief Data Officer Dr. Brita Andercheck. 

Resource of the Week: The United Nations Futures Lab

The UN Futures Lab is a network that empowers the UN System and beyond to use futures thinking and strategic foresight in planning, policy- and decision-making. Its Global Hub supports teams, provides frameworks, and builds capacity to help shape the more resilient and anticipatory United Nations the world needs.

Federal Performance Management: Opportunities for Improvement

Ungated version of Shelley Metzenbaum/as published in International Journal of Public Administration

An overview of progress and lessons learned concludes with specific recommendations to build understanding, more wisely manage motivational mechanisms, and prevent and reduce progress-confounding administrative barriers and burdens. 

Progress of Biden-Harris Performance Management Agenda (July 2024 – video)

U.S. Office of Management and Budget

The Performance.gov team hosted an event highlighting progress on PMA initiatives and conversations with public servants leading various PMA priorities on how they are implementing initiatives such as hiring reforms, the implementation of IRS Direct File, and equity in procurement.

Annual OMB Update on Performance Guidance

U.S. Office of Management and Budget

Each year, OMB updates its guidance, Circular A-11, to agencies on budget processes. Part 6 of that 1,000-page document provides guidance and timetables to agencies on their roles in implementing various laws covered by the Federal Performance Framework.

How to Use AI to Select KPIs and Performance Measures

Stacey Barr via LinkedIn

She experimented with different AI tools and found AI doesn’t generate Key Performance Indicators, they collate; they don’t understand nuance, and they produce convincing, but dangerous answers.

Resource of the Week: Policy Fit for the Future

Australian National University

This primer was developed by the Policy Projects and Taskforce Office in the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet. It provides an overview of Futures methodologies and their practical application to policy development and advice. It is a first step for policy teams and officers interested in Futures: providing you with a range of flexible tools, ideas and advice you can adapt to your own policy challenges and environments.

GPRA’s Incomplete Institutionalization: A Story of Roots and Branches

International Journal of Public Administration (gated article)

Edgar Hollandsworth and Matthew Dull propose explanations for GPRA’s incomplete institutionalization, and how it has influenced and continues to affect the use of performance management in the US Government. It evaluates the evolving institutionalization of GPRA, PART, and GPRAMA resulting from tensions in three sets of competing performance management reform values: 1) performance-performative communications, 2) discretion-accountability, and 3) politics-administration.

Balanced Scorecard: A Literature Review in the Public Administration Domain

International Journal of Public Administration (gated article)

Richardo Gomes and Clovis de Azevedo review the use of Balanced Scorecards use by public administration scholars by analyzing articles from the Web of Science database with bibliometric tools and Artificial Intelligence for lexical and semantic analysis. The analysis concluded that BSC is mainly used in local government for performance management and measurement.

Resource of the Week: How to Measure Government Outcomes

Adura Strategy (Stacey Barr, Australia)

The increasing demand for greater transparency of, and accountability for, the impact of how public funds are spent requires that governments measure their outcomes, not just their activities. This guide addresses five challenges in doing so.

Six Questions to Help You Measure Anything

Adura Strategy

 Great measures don’t just happen, and software is unable to solve this problem for you. The main problem with the lack of useful measures happens much earlier in the process than visualizing data and building dashboards.

Using Evidence

Barrett & Greene (Video: 6 min.)

Zack Markovits shares the ways that Results for America has worked with leaders across the country, across the partisan divide, to help make sure that the billions of dollars heading from federal programs to the states and local governments have been used for evidence-based programs that have been shown to work.

Strategic Planning for Public and Nonprofit Organizations – 6^th Edition

John Wiley Publishers

This revised and updated Sixth Edition of John Bryson’s classic work (now with co-author Bert George) contains new literature cited, new cases, more information on international public and nonprofit concerns, and a more extensive discussion of design and agile methods of strategy development and implementation.

Resource of the Week: Safeguarding the Future: A Strategic Foresight Handbook for National Security & Defense Professional

Archipelago of Design

This practical foresight handbook was conceived to empower leaders and their teams with future-ready mindsets. It provides detailed information on a range of foresight methods that are suitable for the defense and national security realms.

Data-Driven Decisions Act (HR 8751)

Data Foundation

This proposed legislation authorizes $41 million each year through Fiscal Year 2028 to support states in improving their information technology systems, adopting advanced analytics and artificial intelligence technologies, and strengthening data security and privacy protections. (text of bill not yet available)

Quarterly Progress Update of Agency Priority Goals

U.S. Office of Management and Budget

These updates mark reporting from the second quarter of the FY 2024 performance period covering January 1 through March 31. These updates inform the public about the progress being made in major federal agencies and highlight significant milestones or barriers along the way.

Webinar: President’s Management Agenda: Driving Results for All (Wed., July 10 – 1 p.m. Eastern)

U.S. Office of Management and Budget

Speakers from across partner agencies will discuss tangible efforts to improve customer experience — examples include implementing IRS’ Direct File Pilot, expanding hiring through the Pathways Program, and reducing barriers for small businesses to advance equity in procurement.

Updated Trust Dashboard for Federal Services

U.S. Office of Management and Budget

Between January and March 2024, agencies asked over 288,000 customers whether they trusted the agencies involved to meet public needs. For 23 of 33 services surveyed, at least 75 percent said “yes.” Details, data, and definitions are included.

Book Review: The Government Analytics Handbook

Public Administration Review

At a whopping 760 pages, the Government Analytics Handbook, edited by Daniel Rogger and Christian Schuster, is a monumental effort to provide an overview of the many sources of data from and on government and how analyzing these data can help strengthen public sector management.

Resource of the Week: Tennessee’s Office of Evidence & Impact

TN Department of Finance & Administration

The Office of Evidence and Impact (OEI) promotes and facilitates program evaluation to build evidence for state programs and policies. OEI’s program evaluation initiative has three main components: managing the Statewide Learning Agenda, enabling program evaluations, and communicating evidence.