ASPA Center for Accountability & Performance

HUD’s 21 Categories of Risk

Federal News Network (interview with Elliott Johnson, Jr.)

The Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Chief Risk Officer has created a Front-End Risk Assessment tool that has 21 different categories from compliance to systems to reputational and so on, to help managers assess programmatic risks, with the goal of creating a risk management culture across the agency.

Communities of Excellence 2026

Baldrige National Quality Awards Foundation

 When President Biden signed into law the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022, it authorized “Community” becoming the seventh category of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Awards. This bill authorizes American communities to apply for and receive presidential-level recognition for efforts to systematically improve community performance across all sectors and collectively achieve better community outcomes. 

Resource of the Week:  The Management Library: Performance Management

Paradise Media, LLC

Information in this topic describes the foundational performance management process that underlies Employee Performance Management, Team Performance Management and Organizational Performance Management. 

Denver’s Participatory Budgeting Initiative

RouteFifty

After months of offering ideas and refining proposals, Denver residents now have a direct say in how the city will spend $2 million in infrastructure funds. . . Earlier this week, voting opened for Denver’s first “participatory budgeting” initiative, which allows residents to cast ballots for the projects they’d most like to see the city fund

Employee Perceptions of Performance-Based Budgeting in Developing Countries

Public Budgeting & Finance (Early View)

This paper examines the case of Ghana from the perspective of budget officers. How do budget officers perceive the PBB? It is argued that while PBB is professed as a useful budgetary mechanism, there are challenges that need to be addressed if it is to achieve its objectives.

Start Keeping Score

Boston Globe Op-Ed

We already score proposed legislation for its cost to taxpayers, and we require environmental impact assessments for many major projects. If we value racial inclusion and equity, then we should measure it, score it, and hold leaders accountable for how well it is achieved through government action.

Building a Data Foundation: The Role of Data and Evidence in the President’s Management Agenda

Partnership for Public Service/Guidehouse

This report provides agencies with critical building blocks for meeting the PMA’s goals, focusing on investments in strong data infrastructure and using data to improve internal operations and external services. It offers three case studies: the Department of the Air Force, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and Treasury’s Fiscal Service.

Resource of the Week:  Stacey Barr’s “Measure Up” Blog

Barr is an Australian consultant with an extensive website offering free, useful performance-related insights relevant to public managers, and links to several books she’s written on the topic.

The Five A’s of Agile Government Performance

Federalism.us

Agile governments don’t just ask, analyze, answer, apply, and adjust within individual organizational units. They also continually communicate insights to target audiences, especially those working in the field and implementation partners eager to contribute to progress on policy problems and opportunities. 

Eight Strategies for Transforming Government

IBM Center for The Business of Government

This special report identifies eight strategies for transforming government in the years to come. The trends include Restoring Trust in Government, Driving Agility, Addressing Equity, Developing Actionable Insights, and Attaining Effective Outcomes.

Invest in What Works – 2022 State Standards of Excellence

Results for America

In 2022, sixteen criteria comprise the State Standards of Excellence. Results for America used them to identify 263 examples of data-driven and evidence-based practices, policies, programs, and systems in effect as of August 2022 in 41 states across the country. There are 8 leading states and 9 honorable mentions.

How NGOs Can Support States in Advancing Evidence-Based Policymaking

Results First/Pew Charitable Trusts

This report offers guidance on ways that nongovernment stakeholders can help evolve states’ progress by addressing persistent challenges to the routine use of evidence.

Resource of the Week:  Data Viz Style Guide (Baltimore CitiStat)

This style guide was developed to provide a springboard for data visualizations for data practitioners in the City of Baltimore. It is not prescriptive; charts, dashboards, and tables should be developed with audience and application in mind.

Project Performance Reporting in New South Wales [Australia] Local Government

International Journal of Public Administration (Austin Morris, et al) – Gated access

This research highlights the inconsistencies in the way local government project performance is being reported and presents one measure of project success based on publicly available information.

Building a Data Foundation

Partnership for Public Service (report release event – 1:00 – 2:30 p.m. Eastern, Wednesday, Oct. 26)

This on-line event will focus on the release of a new report about how select federal agencies have successfully created a data infrastructure and used that data to drive lasting change on the three priorities in the President’s Management Agenda.

Priority-Based Business Planning and Budgeting

Strathcona County, Alberta, Canada

Priority based budgeting helps Strathcona County to better understand the services it provides citizens and businesses; how much they cost, and how they reflect and address its 8 strategic goals and priorities.  

Performance Audit Reports (podcast: 37:10 min.)

Mark Funkhouser

In this podcast interview, Funkhouser describes by performance auditors need information, ideas, and allies – and why the final reports never “speak for themselves.”

Create a Growth Culture, not a Performance-Obsessed One

Harvard Business Review

C-Suite leaders are focused on how to build higher performance cultures. The irony, we’ve found, is that building a culture focused on performance may not be the best, healthiest, or most sustainable way to fuel results. Instead, it may be more effective to focus on creating a culture of growth.

Evidence 2.0 (Webinar, Tuesday, Oct. 18, 9:30 a.m. Eastern)

Data Foundation/U.S. Office of Management & Budget/Office of Science & Technology Policy

Exploring new approaches for applying evidence in active, real-time decision-making environments. How will evidence generated via data initiatives most effectively be translated into meaningful and appropriate uses for decision-making and policymaking?

Entering the Evidence Promised Land (Chapter 20: Making the Evidence Act a Law)

Bipartisan Policy Center

This chapter by Nick Hart is an insider’s description of how the Evidence Act came about. 

How Nonprofits Can Incorporate Equity into Their Measurement, Evaluation and Learning

The Bridgespan Group

Measuring with equity means incorporating a range of voices and viewpoints, including those with the least traditional power, and putting the challenges and solutions from your community and constituents at the core of how you think about impact

Resource of the Week:  Evidence-Based Policymaking Resource Center

Social Science Research Institute, Pennsylvania State University

This center contains resources regarding the five components of evidence-based policymaking, including briefs exploring their key elements, fact sheets highlighting best practices to approaching each one, and analyses of states and counties implementing them in their jurisdictions.