Performance Management

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This report assesses the lessons learned from government organizations that have successfully implemented shared services and recommends best practices for those considering doing so.

Since the early 1990's, the federal government has been moving toward a more results oriented, performance-based management environment. Under performance-based acquisition (PBA), agencies tell the contractor the results they want, not how to do the work and then measure whether or not the results are achieved. Uneven adoption of PBA techniques appears to be partly due to holding contracting accountable for a program responsibility, as well as a lack of staff expertise.

Governments use analytics (often described as "business intelligence") to enable and drive their strategies and performance in an ever more volatile and turbulent environment. Analytics and fact-based decision making can make a powerful contribution to the achievement of government missions, just as they are now making to the accomplishment of corporate business objectives.

This insight brief provides the necessary steps agency management must take to recognize the critical role that contract management plays in accomplishing agency missions.Contracting

Dr. Ho presents two case studies - one from Des Moines, Iowa; the other from Boston, Massachusetts - where government agencies and citizen groups reported their own or their government's performance, respectively. While each of these cases reflects different strategic approaches, they both attempt to bring together what government does and what citizens see as being important in their community. In his report, Dr.

Dr. Behn prepared this report to summarize and present the questions most frequently posed to citiStat staff and to Mayor Martin O'Malley. The report explains how CitiStat should be viewed as a management strategy rather than a management system. When viewed as a management strategy, Dr. Behn argues, the program can be replicated and customized to each mayor's individual needs and priorities. A key insight is that there is no single, right approach as to how to develop a successful management performance and accountability structure.

This report reviews the history of performance management efforts within the federal government and discusses the successes, challenges, and failures over the years. In addition, the report offers insights from other performance management experiences in both public and private sector organizations. The authors describe differences between private and public sector performance management practices, as well as present a comparative analysis of corporate and non-corporate use of good management practices.

Since the passage of the government Performance and Results Act of 1993, there has been increased interest in the federal government on improving service delivery and delivering results. Dr. Maleyeff’s report is a comprehensive review of how public sector managers can use Lean Six Sigma to improve the execution and delivery of results. Dr.

Philadelphia’s SchoolStat is a case study of the adaptation of a successful management model, CompStat, developed over a decade ago by new York City’s Police Department. The model has since been adapted by various city agencies in new York; by cities, such as Baltimore’s CitiStat; and by some state governments, such as Maryland’s new StateStat. The School District of Philadelphia is one of the most prominent early efforts to adapt this model to improving the management and performance of schools.