February 14, 2000 Opinion: Review of performance measures information
- With the budget request for FY 2001 public, some in Congress having declared it dead on arrival, and the President again having most of the chits in the game, it is time to turn to less fun but more productive endeavors, such as improving performance measurement and communications related to agency performance. In this regard, we'll review some sources that may make life easier and performance management work less taxing - some oldies but goodies. (All the web sites mentioned are listed in the budget execution links page.)
- If you haven't done so recently, it is time to revisit the "reinventing
government" web site, the ex-National Performance Review site, now the Partnership
for Reinventing Government. Apart from access to some reference materials,
noteworthy is that NPR is pursuing a series of outcomes it will
achieve by January 1, 2001, i.e., before the current administration leaves office:
- Best customer service
- Dramatically increase E-Gov
- Outcomes no one agency can achieve alone
- Embed reinvention in government's culture
These outcomes can be expected to be pursued with some vigor in the future because they make sense. You can count on them being pursued for sure if Al Gore becomes President. And why should any other president not do this? You should review the outcomes that cross across agencies - they are clearly outcome measures, and are good examples of outcome measures. You may question whether or not they will be achieved, but they definitely lay down a challenge to multiple agencies. The National Partnership site has a listing of performance related materials and references. These are useful if you are looking for basic documents related to performance management, such as OMB guidance.
- GAO's site also deserves your attention and study. GAO has an extensive collection of materials relevant to performance management. It is also very prolific, with information that names names. And new materials keep coming out. For example, Managing for Results: Challenges Agencies Face in Producing Credible Performance Information (GAO/GGD-00-52), February 4, 2000, has this:
As shown in figure 1, our analysis of agencies’ fiscal year 2000 performance plans noted that most of the plans provided only limited confidence that performance information would be credible. Only the plans for the Department of Education, the Department of Justice, the Department of Transportation, and the Social Security Administration provided general confidence that their performance information would be credible. (Page 5)
All agencies need to pay careful attention to what GAO is saying. In this case, all but the four listed as knowing what they are doing. (Another recent GAO product was summarized in this site - see GAO recommendations for performance management. GAO takes some time to organize its materials on its web site, so some of the links are not in expected places and they jump around.)
- Finally, there is The Results Act site. A must read if you want to know what the majority in Congress is going to emphasize as far as performance is concerned. There are links to other sites, such as Senator Thompson's Waste Watchers page.
- I hope you enjoy some of this surfing and reading. Next time we'll try to put this information to practical use.
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