ASPA Center for Accountability & Performance

Management
Building Trust in Government One Problem at a Time
Don Kettl and Anne Khademian, Government Executive
Restoring trust in government starts with getting government service right—one local problem at a time, one public administrator at a time.
Collaboration inside government during the COVID crisis
Steve Kelman, FCW
Steve Kelman reports on New Zealand’s all-hands approach to contain the coronavirus.
Updates Posted on President’s Management Agenda
FEDWeek
Updates to the President’s Management agenda have been posted on performance.gov for January-June, covering both agency priority goals and cross agency priority goals, and with additional information on coronavirus response efforts that arose during that period.

Open Data, Analytics, & Data Governance
A Federal Data Failure Is Making It Hard to Talk About COVID
Donald Kettl, Government Executive
Without a standard, trusted language of COVID data collection, it’s been hard to measure the disease, track its trend, and build effective policy.
Adopting a Data-Driven Culture Enhances Digital Transformation on the Path to a Post-COVID World
David Watts, NextGov
Building a data-driven culture isn’t easy, but it’s important.
Data-driven government should be bottom-up as much as top-down
Monica McEwen, Federal News Network
In the past few months, agencies have been truly tested as they work to keep missions moving  as they face the added challenges of implementing remote work policies and capabilities, become accustomed to more decentralized planning and decision making, and weigh the potential impacts the virus might have on their operations and workforce into the future.
CARES Act delivery hampered by old tech, bad data
Derek Johnson, FCW
Aspects of the federal government’s economic response to the coronavirus pandemic were marred by outdated state technology software and a crushing volume of beneficiaries that overwhelmed many systems, according to a new report from GAO.

Evidence & Evaluation
We need evidence and data to move forward effectively
Robert Shea, Federal News Network
Federal agencies have been quietly building the foundation for expanding the collection and use of evidence to improve their performance. This includes appointing evidence officers, developing learning agendas and assessing agency evidence-building capacity. While some treated things like this as a compliance exercise in the past, a global pandemic underscores the fact that evidence and data have never been so critical to our ability to move forward effectively.
6 Ways the Next Administration Could Use Evidence-Based Policy to Advance Social Justice
Andrew Feldman, Government Executive
Using data and research to improve program outcomes may not make for a catchy campaign slogan, but it can go a long way toward reducing economic and racial disparities.

Management
USDA to switch to ‘pass-fail’ performance management system, new awards policy this fall
Nicole Ogrysko, Federal News Network
The goal will free up time and resources for agency managers and supervisors to recognize top performance, said Stephen Censky, USDA’s deputy secretary.
IT modernization in the time of COVID-19: How government investment in critical IT systems can enhance citizen services
Gordon Bitko & David Logsdon, Federal News Network
Outdated government IT systems and processes hinder many federal and state agencies’ ability to deliver services. This fact has been well known and disturbingly unresolved, even before the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
Building Digital Government That Can Withstand Surges
Daniel Castro, Government Technology
The COVID-19 pandemic overwhelmed many state unemployment insurance websites. While some fared better than others, all governments can take advantage of things like cloud technology to prepare for the next storm.
Agency efforts to cut duplication, overlap have saved $429B, GAO says
Nicole Ogrysko, Federal News Network
At a time when government has injected trillions of dollars into the economy to address the fallout from the coronavirus crisis, GAO suggests agencies could uncover billions in additional savings by better managing existing programs and finding ways to weed out duplication, fragmentation and overlap.
DHS executes pivot to agile, but needs better reporting metrics
Mark Rockwell, FCW
DHS has successfully planned and made progress executing its shift to agile software development over the past four years, but needs to do a better job on reporting metrics, according to a recent GAO audit.

Open Data, Analytics, & Data Governance
Analytics reveal areas for mission improvement at USDA, VA
Jason Miller, Federal News Network
VA is applying deep analytics to health care data to address challenges with the coronavirus. USDA created management dashboards to improve decision making.

Management
GAO Sees Progress but More Opportunity for Improving Efficiency
FEDweek
Federal agencies have made substantial progress toward addressing fragmentation, duplication and overlap in their programs, GAO has said, although its latest annual report also cites 18 new areas where such problems exist and adds recommendations for actions on previous ones that have not been resolved.

Open Data, Analytics, & Data Governance
State and Federal Data on COVID-19 Testing Don’t Match Up
Robinson Meyer and Alexis C. Madrigal, The Atlantic (crossposted to GovExec)
Illustrating the complexity of managing national data from decentralized sources, CDC has started releasing nationwide numbers but they contradict what states themselves are reporting.
Select data centers should specialize in shared services, says director of consolidation effort
Dave Nyczepir, FedScoop
Select data centers across the U.S. should provide governmentwide shared services like archiving or mainframe-as-a-service, according to the director of the General Services Administration’s consolidation initiative.
Data is the Army’s secret weapon to winning the battle for talent
Kevin McCaney, Federal News Network
There are a lot of moving parts to the service’s talent management initiative, but a consistent thread is its use of data in assessing the talent the Army needs and in how soldiers and civilians should be deployed.
TSA makes data a top priority for detecting insider threats
Dave Nyczepir, FedScoop
The Transportation Security Administration is prioritizing the use of data to detect insider threats to the transportation system, under a roadmap released Thursday.

Open Government & Innovation
NASA wants to hack its way against coronavirus
Tom Temin, Federal News Network
For nine years, thinkers at NASA’s science mission has been inviting software coders and scientists to an annual hackathon aimed at helping out with real-world problems. This year, there’s an early, extra edition aimed at coronavirus.

Pandemic Response and Oversight
What will work look like going forward? The federal CIO outlines possible changes
Andrew Eversden, Federal Times
Federal Chief Information Officer Suzette Kent said that the ongoing coronavirus pandemic will leave the federal government “rethinking” many processes that were once required to occur in person.
HHS gauges industry’s appetite for sharing data on medical supply availability
Dave Nyczepir, FedScoop
The Department of Health and Human Services wants to know if industry can feasibly share information through a “supply chain IT control tower” to allow for real-time visibility across the Strategic National Stockpile (SNS) of medical supplies.
Could the pandemic force the intelligence community to reconsider workplace flexibilities?
Nicole Ogrysko, Federal News Network
“When we get back to normal, there is not going to be the normal we knew of pre-Covid,” Bill Evanina, director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, said last week on a webinar. “We’ve been able to identify the fact that we are just as successful, with some exceptions, with people working at home than we were before.”

Open Data, Analytics, & Data Governance
Federal Data Strategy team extends target dates, prioritizes coronavirus response data
Dave Nyczepir, FedScoop
The Federal Data Strategy team is extending target dates in its 2020 action plan as agencies focus on “mission-critical” activities and minimize face-to-face interactions in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
How agencies can master their data to deliver better services
Sherry Bennett and Michael Anderson, FedScoop
Deadlines to meet the Federal Data Strategy 2020 Action Plan are approaching quickly. Federal agencies must prioritize actions to establish processes, build capacity and align efforts that leverage their data to better serve the public. The first step of the action plan requires federal leaders to identify the agency’s data needs by September 2020.
Data sharing and COVID-19
Lia Russell, FCW
As the federal government has had to adapt to the new normal of working remotely since the coronavirus shuttered office doors, a number of agencies have prioritized public data sharing in an effort to collaborate on response and recovery efforts.
How Virginia Juked Its COVID-19 Data
Alexis C. Madrigal and Robinson Meyer, The Atlantic Magazine
The state is combining results from viral and antibody tests in the same statistic. This threatens to confound America’s understanding of the pandemic.
Pentagon Wants Better Data For Its Predictive Aircraft Maintenance AI
Frank Konkel, NextGov
The Pentagon’s AI center is looking to break through past challenges it has faced advancing predictive maintenance among select aircraft.

Open Government & Innovation
Free training available to become coronavirus contact tracer
Tom Temin, Federal Drive, Federal News Network
State and local health agencies are offering free training for anyone who wants to become what’s known as a COVID-19 contact tracer. The training program is organized through two organizations — the National Coalition of STD Directors and the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials.
VA Exploring Options for a Grand Challenge to Prevent Suicide
Brandi Vincent, NextGov
The agency is looking for a contractor to help run a possible multi-phase competition, including outreach and potentially raising private-sector funds for the prizes.

Customer Service
Improving Customer Experience in the Wake of COVID-19
Scott Straub, NextGov
During a crisis when it is most important to provide an experience that gives customers confidence in their government.

Pandemic Response, Oversight, Continuity of Operations, and Telework
SBA shows dangers of fast rule-making
Tom Temin, Federal News Network
The SBA Inspector General came out with a report on the loans authorized by the CARES Act that the seven “interim final rules” mostly aligned with the Act.

Open Data, Analytics, & Data Governance
Federal Manager’s Daily Report: Progress Reported on Data Strategy Milestones
FEDweek
Most of the first calendar quarter milestones in the Federal Data Strategy 2020 Action Plan have been fully met, several partially met and data collection is pending on several others.
Census Bureau launches surveys, data hub to track coronavirus impacts
Dave Nyczepir, fedscoop
The Census Bureau plans to fill holes in the government’s understanding of the coronavirus’ social and economic impacts with two new surveys and an interactive data hub.
AI success in federal health agencies starts with effective data management
Joachim Roski and Catherine Ordun, FCW
In just the few months since the virus erupted onto the world stage, governments and organizations have employed AI to track outbreaks and predict where future outbreaks will occur; research and develop treatments; diagnose the disease from CT lung scans; among other uses.
What’s New in Civic Tech: Gov Data Efforts Evolve in Crisis
Zach Quaintance, Government Technology
The Pittsburgh Department of Innovation and Performance’s GIS team has created a platform to map positive COVID-19 test results by neighborhood; the California Homeless Data System team is looking to hire new tech talent; a New York City group has rolled out a new Census messaging guide; and the Connecticut Data Collaborative is now hosting online events.
The coronavirus has turned this unlikely federal agency into a predictor of economic recovery
Andrew Eversden, Federal Times
The Transportation Department’s statistical agency may be able to offer clues as to when the U.S. economy will recover.

Management & Oversight
Creating an Oversight Toolkit to Ensure the CARES Act Delivers for the American People
Evan Lee, Nextgov
Inspectors general across government need modern tools in their fight against fraud.
GAO Gives Mixed Review of Selected Management Initiatives
FEDweek
GAO has given a mixed review of three initiatives in the administration’s government-wide reform plan,reviewing the transfer of background investigation responsibility from OPM to DoD, addressing the government’s shortage of cybersecurity workers, among others.