ASPA Center for Accountability & Performance

Success Metrics for Stronger Federal Workforce

Government Executive

In new guidance issued last week, OPM Director Kiran Ahuja, Defense Deputy Secretary Kathleen Hicks and Labor Deputy Secretary Julie Su instructed federal agencies to take several actions that use a data-based approach to better measure progress on strengthening and empowering the federal workforce.

New Zealand: The State of the Public Service

NZ Public Service Commission

The Public Service Act 2020 put in place new requirements to provide for strong stewardship of the Public Service now and into the future. One of those is the requirement for the Public Service Commissioner to prepare a three-yearly briefing on the state of the Public Service. This is the first report on how well it is performing.

Let’s Talk Performance!

Barrett & Greene

Recorded webinar sponsored by the National Center for Public Performance on performance management, featuring Katherine Barrett and Richard Greene, moderated by Monica Croskey Chaparro, assistant city manager, Virginia Beach.

The Next Era of Data-Driven Government

RouteFifty

As the initial wave of data-driven government transitions to the status quo, how can local governments further mature in the way they collect, analyze and harness the data they possess? 

Resource of the Week:  A Catalog of Civic Data Use Cases

Data-Smart City Solutions, Harvard University

What kinds of operations-enhancing questions have cities asked and answered with data and analytics? This catalog is an ongoing, regularly-updated resource for those interested in knowing what specific use cases can be addressed using more advanced data and analysis techniques.   

November 2022 Progress Report on the President’s Management Agenda

U.S. Office of Management and Budget

The PMA has established dozens of success metrics to monitor progress. These quarterly updates show accomplishments to date, milestones teams are working towards, and a highlights section for each priority area that demonstrates what this work means for the American public.

Exploring New Approaches for Applying Evidence: A Recap

Data Foundation

As agencies produce more evidence, a critical question remains: How is evidence being meaningfully and effectively used? A forum in October explored this question and this resulted in the “Evidence 2.0” model.

ICMA Strategic Planning in Small Communities: A Manager’s Manual

International City/County Managers Association

This report combines new research and practical experience in a practitioner-oriented guide to making strategic planning work in your community, no matter how small. Its insights are useful to first-time administrators or those championing a strategic plan for the first time.

In Search of a Practical Data Maturity Model for California

StateOfCalData Blog

Looking for feedback: “We want a simple diagnostic tool for data maturity. Learn more and give us feedback. . . . We want a tool to help departments diagnose where to make improvements in how they manage and use data.”

Resource of the Week: Updated USASpending.gov Interface

U.S. Treasury Department

USAspending.gov links data from many government systems, including agency financial systems and governmentwide award systems. Its website has finally been updated to make it more user-friendly to non-technical users.

Public Performance Conference: Innovations and Lessons for Policymakers – Call for Papers

National Center for Public Performance

NCPP is partnering with the Management Development Institute in India and the Commonwealth Secretariat to sponsor a three-day conference (March 25-27, 2023). The goal of the conference is to garner evidence and identify best practices on innovation and smart practices in public performance management worldwide. Proposals for papers are due November 30, 2022.

Tennessee’s Approach to Evidence-Based Budgeting

TN Department of Finance & Administration

Tennessee is placing a greater focus on ensuring it invests in what works to best serve citizens across the state. Part of this effort, known as evidence-based budgeting, began in the spring of 2019 within the budget division of the Department of Finance and Administration. Current fiscal year budgeting forms, required from all executive agencies, use the Tennessee Evidence Framework and follow the principles of evidence-based budgeting.

The Balanced Scorecard Doesn’t Properly Cascade and Align KPIs 
Stacey Barr’s Blog

Balanced Scorecard Strategy Maps are popular, but they are not the best way to properly cascade and align KPIs throughout an organization.

The Essential Guide to Priority-Based Budgeting

ResourceX
In contrast to traditional budgeting models, priority-based budgets align resources and funding with community priorities and outcomes. This shifts the focus to accountability for a program’s results, creating transparency and a better understanding of the true cost of each program.

Organizational Performance and Government Resource Allocation

Public Performance & Management Review (Gated Access)

This study examines if different levels of organizational performance achievement affect annual budget changes, focusing on Washington State’s public programs from 2006 to 2015. This study finds significant relationships and concludes that higher program performance may lead to budget increases.

Resource of the Week: New York City-Wide Agency Performance Reports

New York City, Office of the Mayor

The Citywide Performance Report represents 424 critical performance measures from more than 40 City agencies. From this webpage, you can search for measures of various services, review data summarizing how well government is performing in different areas, analyze long-term trends, and see specific agencies’ outcome measures.

Measuring the Value of Official Statistics: Testing and Developing a Measurement Framework

United Nations Economic Commission for Europe

The report proposes moving away from an indicator-led approach. Instead, it argues that we should be working out what it is that people really value, and build from there – an outside-in perspective as opposed to the top-down, inside-out approach. A distinction is drawn between measuring value with indicators that monitor production, and measuring value from the point of view of consumers.

Federal “What Works” Standard of Excellence 2022

Results for America

The 2022 “Invest in What Works Federal Standard of Excellence“ assesses how nine federal agencies – which oversaw more than $221 billion in federal funds this year – are building and using the infrastructure necessary to use evidence and data in their budget, policy, and management decisions. 

Results First: Looking Back and Moving Forward

Pew Charitable Trusts (video)

This video looks back at the Results First initiative’s work with states over the past 12 years and previews what’s next for the evidence-based policymaking field, as Pew steps back from this initiative and hands it off to others.

Getting Started with Using Data to Improve City Performance

Cities Today

A growing number of cities are using their data as part of performance improvement programs. Some have well embedded initiatives and others are just starting out. . . But what does using data for performance improvement mean in practice? . . . On a webinar hosted by Tyler Technologies, local government experts shared their views.

Resource of the Week: Learning Agenda Questions Dashboard

U.S. Office of Management & Budget

Federal agencies recently published agency-wide Learning Agendas, or evidence-building plans. The plans include priority questions to address the most pressing evidence needs across agencies. This dashboard compiles those questions in one place so that you can easily explore where evidence is most needed.

Measurement and Complexity: Why, How, and For Whom Do We Measure?

United Nations Development Programme’s Innovation Unit

UNDP has set up a monitoring and evaluation sandbox to nurture and learn from new ways of doing monitoring and evaluation that are coherent with the complex nature of the challenges facing the world today. The Sandbox prioritizes action and practical insights ‘from the front lines’ about how to do it, rather than abstract theory and general principles (though those are important too!).

Theory of Change Workbook (Webinar – 8:30 a.m. Eastern, Nov 16).

Social Impact

Theories of Change are foundational to program design and implementation and yet very few resources exist to help development practitioners develop strong theories of change. Learn how to use the workbook to help create stronger theories of change that are locally-driven and context-specific. 

Let’s Talk Performance: Making Government Work

National Center for Public Performance (webinar – 3 p.m. Eastern, Nov 17)

Webinar features authors Katherine Barrett and Richard Greene, with moderator Monica Croskey Chaparro. Email ncppsuffolk@gmail.com to register.

Evaluation & Auditing: Lessons Overseeing DATA Act

Data Foundation and U.S. Government Accountability Office (Webinar – 1 p.m., Eastern, Nov 30)

These evaluations of how agencies implemented the DATA Act are examples of how GAO and the IG community support, coordinate, and leverage evaluative activities . . .  Taken as a whole, these evaluations also provide powerful examples of the benefits and challenges of conducting “real time” audits of a complex, government-wide reform initiative.

The Triumph and Tribulations of Performance Management

International Journal of Public Administration (Katherine Barrett & Richard Greene) – Gated access

This essay builds a case for the power of performance management to aid in making positive change, while also focusing on some of the biggest challenges leaders in this field have confronted. It also includes a series of principles designed to help overcome or avoid these challenges.

New Bill Would Increase State & Local Government Transparency

Accounting Today

The Financial Data Transparency Act (S.4295) takes a major step toward openness and accessibility by directing seven financial regulators to develop “machine-readable” data standards that accurately reflect the existing reporting standards. So, it is surprising that this transparency measure has attracted stiff opposition when it has proven so successful in corporate reporting.

Resource of the Week:  Catalog of Administrative Data Sets

J-PAL North America

Administrative data are information collected, used, and stored primarily for administrative (i.e., operational), rather than research, purposes. These data can be an excellent source of information for use in research and impact evaluation. Specific requirements and processes for obtaining data vary by data source.