ASPA Center for Accountability & Performance

Ten Tips for Better Performance Management

Barrett & Greene

During the last three (plus) decades, Katherine Barrett and Richard Greene have seen a number of flaws crop up in the performance management functions of cities, counties and states. Some of these are obvious — like the problems caused by low quality data — others are not. This article sums up ten tips that they believe can be useful for entities that covet success in this discipline.

Validating Social Security’s Performance Metrics

NextGov

Social Security Commissioner Frank Bisignano has agreed to have the agency’s inspector general audit SSA’s performance data and to publicly report a broader list of data, Senator Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., said after meeting with the longtime financial services businessman who took over the agency in May.

Tracking Educational Performance

Washington Post           

What are the best ways to measure whether an education system is preparing students for life after high school? That’s a difficult question to answer because of a lack of quality data. But thanks to the National Governors Association, that could soon change. NGA Chair Jared Polis, Governor of Colorado is releasing a report detailing a roadmap to collect data and measure performance.

Building an Evidence Engine

Public Administration Review

This article discusses how the U.S. General Service Administration’s Federal Acquisition Service developed and sustained a framework to collect and transform data into reliable evidence to inform decision-making – that is, how it created an “evidence engine.”

Benchmarking Project Report 2025

School of Government, University of N. Carolina

The North Carolina Benchmarking Project was established in 1995 so that participating municipalities could compare service data and performance trends. In 2022, the Benchmarking Project relaunched as Benchmarking 2.0 with a new emphasis on collaboration and relationship-building. Benchmarking 2.0 offers revised framework metrics, streamlined data collection, an interactive online dashboard, and intensive in-person performance strategy sessions.

“No Better Way to Manage Performance”

Government Executive (Op-Ed – Howard Risher)

The U.S. Office of Personnel Management’s new performance management guidance looks to refine how federal agencies tackle employee performance, but to reach its mark, the federal government’s HR agency should explore how to empower employee problem-solving.

Assessing the Effectiveness of Performance-Based Budgeting

The Journal of Academic Science

Performance-Based Budgeting can enhance financial accountability, improve resource allocation, and foster a results-oriented culture in public administration. However, the effectiveness of PBB is contingent upon several factors, including the political environment, organizational capacity, and stakeholder engagement

Resource of the Week:  EU Justice Scorecard for 27 Countries

LinkedIn (John Mercer’s “Performance for Government” Group)

This is an interesting example of “benchmarking” governmental performance at the national level. The European Union has just published its latest annual report on the justice systems of its 27 member countries, its “EU Justice Scorecard.” The many bar graphs compare the recent performance of each of these countries to its peers across a wide range of justice administration metrics.

Federal Auditing Does Not Work

U.S. Office of Management and Budget

OMB released new audit guidance to agencies (M-25-30) that decries existing procedures as “rote exercises that do no ensure sound financial management.” It is initiating a governmentwide “strategic reset” of how it approaches financial accountability and oversight by focusing on current-year activity and balances. It also promises additional reforms by “auditing the auditors,” “focusing on high-impact audits,” and “linking transparency to reform.” Past efforts at reform had been unsuccessful, according to a story in Federal News Network.

New OPM Performance Management Rules – Mostly on Target?

Government Executive (op-ed by Ron Sanders)

OPM’s new performance management rules aim to end inflated ratings and eliminate pass-fail systems—but do they go too far in prescribing a one-size-fits-all approach?

Beyond the Performance Review

Careers in Government

Many government managers still treat performance management as purely transactional—a checklist of metrics and improvement plans. This outdated approach misses a profound opportunity: the chance to lead from the inside out and create transformational change during times of transition.

Bad Data Is Everywhere

Barrett & Greene

As the trend toward greater reliance on data has accelerated over the past decades, the information itself has fallen dangerously short of the mark. . . .Sadly, many people throw statistics around without the context that truly makes them useful.

Improving Spending Efficiency

RouteFifty (op-ed by Jed Herrmann)

Governments have an opportunity to improve the efficiency of their programs to maximize the impact of taxpayer dollars with technological advances paving the way for this progress. Here are five ways.

Making Non-Punitive Accountability Matter

Public Administration (open access)

Punitive measures (sanctions) are central to accountability. Their use is however costly as they harm relationships. Against this background, the authors study when and why nonpunitive accountability can be effective. They studied decisions by administrative leaders in Denmark that were subject to various forms of nonpunitive accountability.