Metrics

Information technology has made possible the availability of real-time data and the tools to display that data, such as dash­boards, scorecards, and heat maps. This has boosted the use of data and evidence by government decision makers in meeting their agency and program missions. But what about the use of performance metrics by agency chief information officers themselves? Background. Typically, CIOs have a good inventory of metrics regarding the performance of their technical infrastructure, such as server down time.

A cross-agency initiative to Benchmark and Improve Mission-Support Operations has been underway since early 2013 when it was announced by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Today, the preliminary results of the effort are being used to inform discussions between agencies and OMB in their first-ever “FedStat” meetings on how well are agencies managing their administrative functions and ultimately delivering on strategic objectives.

Initially, these comparisons were only among the 24 major departments and agencies.  Today, Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey data are available to line managers across 28,000 work units.  The survey results are used to gauge employee engagement, and to fine tune management priorities.  Most career senior executives are held accountable for trends in employee survey results in their organizations. 

John Kamensky

FEMA’s Resilience Reset. RouteFifty reports: “State and local governments should own the disaster recovery process by creating integrated, outcome-based mitigation plans like Puerto Rico post-Hurricane Maria, the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s administrator said Thursday at a congressional hearing on Capitol Hill.”