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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.) |
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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