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Budget Analyst -- Federal Agency Money Matters

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PERFORMANCE
GAO on Perf.

GAO's Recommendations for Performance Management and Improvement

 

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GAO's report Managing for Results:  Strengthening Regulatory Agencies' Performance Management Practices (GAO/GGD-00-10) should be used as the guide for achieving sound performance measures.  Its title is misleading; the report is actually a compendium of best practices GAO identified across many organizations for developing sound performance measures.  The report is 63 pages long, with five being the report itself and the rest appendices and references.

 

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The report makes recommendations for improving performance management under the following areas:

 

Restructure Management Approach
Strengthen Management Approach
Make implementation and achievement top priorities
Conduct comprehensive assessment of internal and external environments
Establish a high-level organizational capability
Develop core performance based management competencies
Enhance ownership and commitment
Management and staff fully participate
Well-defined and tightly focused mission statement
Family of plans across the organization
Change organizational structure and/or management interrelationships
Redesign responsibility and accountability structures
Target daily activities to implement performance goals
Integrate performance management into budgetary processes
Use performance agreements and appraisals
Establish relationships outside the organization
Results-oriented collaborative relationships
Involve regulated entities in identifying mission, goals, targets, and measures
Involve regulated entities in the prevention aspects of performance
Build consensus among program delivery partners on targets, measures, and data use
Obtain periodic input on performance management efforts
Establish rigorous partnerships across organizations
Identify cross-cutting relationships, common outcomes, and agency contributions
Establish leadership role to coordinate cooperative efforts
Use tools to facilitate common data sharing
Refine performance goals, measures, and targets
Establish a rationale of how the program delivers results
Look at programs using holistic or systems approach
Develop basic program logic models
Expand program assessment and evaluation efforts
Select goals and measures consistent with the program rationale
Select vital program and support goals from program logic models
Use rigorous criteria to select the most important measures
Develop comprehensive suite of measures representing total program performance
Set appropriate targets for performance goals
Use different types of comparisons
Use multiyear and subgoal targets
Use distinct populations or comparison categories
Use baselines to set realistic but challenging targets
Strengthen analytical capabilities and techniques
Ensure adequate data resources and analytical capabilities
Ensure staff capabilities meet performance management needs
Develop data resource infrastructures and supporting information systems
Use specific tools to support the use of performance information
Ensure the quality, timeliness, and continuity of performance information
Target analysis at regulatory intervention
Use risk management techniques to target resources for maximum results
Take a balanced approach to regulatory efforts
Account for external and contextual factors
Identify and track external and internal contextual factors
Use smaller units of analysis
Use statistical techniques and program evaluations
Continue improving performance-based management
Continuously assess and strengthen performance-based management

 

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