Seven Drivers Transforming Government

Submitted by on Wed, 11/01/2017 - 10:26

In 2018, the IBM Center for The Business of Government marks its twentieth year of connecting research to practice in helping to improve government. The IBM Center continues to execute on its ultimate mission: to assist public sector executives and managers in addressing real world problems with practical ideas and original thinking to improve government.

Cross-Agency Collaboration: A Case Study of Cross-Agency Priority Goals

Submitted by on Wed, 10/04/2017 - 09:30

Congress granted the executive branch the authority to establish and implement cross-agency initiatives, via the Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) Modernization Act of 2010. That law, among other things, requires the Office of Management and Budget to designate “Cross-Agency Priority Goals” for a small handful of mission-support and mission-related areas, covering a four-year period, along with the designation of a goal leader and the requirement for quarterly progress reports.

Five Actions to Improve Military Hospital Performance

Submitted by on Thu, 09/14/2017 - 09:37

This, combined with concerns about adequacy in direct health care support for the readiness mission and quality, has led Congress to direct a major overhaul of the direct care system in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year (FY) 2017, signed into law December 23, 2016.

Tiered Evidence Grants - An Assessment of the Education Innovation and Research Program

Submitted by on Tue, 07/11/2017 - 09:13

Early-stage innovations receive smaller grants; mid-level programs with promising evidence receive larger grants; and initiatives with substantial evidence of success in multiple settings are expanded nationally and receive the largest grants.

Digital Service Teams: Challenges and Recommendations for Government

Submitted by on Wed, 05/31/2017 - 08:52

The British government successfully pioneered the use of a national, semi-independent “surge team” to tackle large-scale technology-driven challenges facing it. The U.S. federal government adapted this approach to improve the success of its own operations in 2014, titling its top-level team as the “U.S. Digital Service.”  It then created a small internal software development and service organization, dubbed “18F,” to support both USDS and individual agencies.  And individual agencies are creating their own internal digital service teams, as well.

Transforming Government Through Technology

Submitted by on Sun, 03/26/2017 - 13:30

The federal government can reduce costs while improving services by adapting private sector cost reduction strategies and technologies to achieve similar benefits in government. This objective is highlighted by a recent report, led by the Technology CEO Council (TCC), in which the IBM Center for The Business of Government participated.

Interagency Performance Targets: A Case Study of New Zealand’s Results Programme

Submitted by on Mon, 03/06/2017 - 09:32

New Zealand has been a beacon for government reforms for almost three decades. While the New Public Management Reforms of the late 1980s made agencies more efficient and responsive, they also created a new problem; agencies struggled to organize effectively around problems that crossed agency boundaries. New Zealand undertook a new round of reform in 2012 to address ten important and persistent crosscutting problems.

Risk Management and Reducing Improper Payments: A Case Study of the U.S. Department of Labor

Submitted by on Thu, 02/16/2017 - 11:02

This report continues the IBM Center’s long interest in risk management with a specific focus on employing risk management strategies to reduce improper payments in the U S Department of Labor’s (DOL) Unemployment Insurance (UI) program. There is a long tradition of public management scholarship that has provided empirical support for the hypothesis that management matters for government performance. One specific management activity that has been growing in prominence in federal agencies over the last several years is risk management.

Maximizing the Value of Quadrennial Strategic Planning

Submitted by on Mon, 11/21/2016 - 11:32

A new law adopted in 2010 requires all agencies to prepare new four-year strategic plans in the first year of each administration.  First drafts of these plans are due to the Office of Management and Budget in June 2017.

Ten Actions to Implement Big Data Initiatives: A Study of 65 Cities

Submitted by on Tue, 10/04/2016 - 09:44

Professor Ho conducted a survey and phone interviews with city officials responsible for Big Data initiatives. Based on his research, the report presents a framework for Big Data initiatives which consists of two major cycles: the data cycle and the decision-making cycle. Each cycle is described in the report.

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