In our last post, we introduced the first principle government agencies should adopt in effort to dramatically cut costs while simultaneously driving improved performance; the importance of government agencies to understand their current environment. Today we will wrap up the two other principles to predict future outcomes and learn how changes impact those outcomes. Principle 2: Predict Future Outcomes

Welcome back and happy new year. In our last post in 2011, we wrapped up our discussion on how one commercial organization, Wal-Mart, has effectively used analytics to improve its operational performance. We also provided some examples of government departments and agencies that have implemented analytics and explained how they are using analytics to improve their service to citizens.

Making these connections requires assessing information of all types, often from disparate sources, to provide a foundation for strategic and tactical decision-making and insight to those who can make decisions and take action.

The Collaboration Project hosted a “lessons learned” forum last week on how agencies developed their Open Government Plans. I was particularly impressed with what the presenter from the Department of Housing and Urban Development said, so I dug a bit further and read its plan (or its