Ten Challenges Facing Public Managers

Submitted by on Thu, 03/12/2009 - 20:00
The IBM Center is looked to as a source for starting dialogues on a broad range of public management topics. For the past ten years, we have studied the critical changes that are underway at all levels of government in the United States and around the world. Along the way, the Center has helped frame a number of significant management policy issues facing government.

Strategic Use of Analytics in Government

Submitted by on Thu, 03/12/2009 - 20:00

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.

Transforming Government Through Collaborative Innovation

Submitted by on Thu, 03/12/2009 - 20:00

Government, like the private sector, is now beginning to tap into and deploy the resources of organizations and individuals in other sectors to develop and create innovations, such as new ways to deliver public services.

Interagency Acquisitions: What is the Problem?

Submitted by on Thu, 03/12/2009 - 20:00

This brief discusses the beginnings of interagency acquisitions and how this tool leverages an agency's expertise and cuts costs. It also discusses a decline in the usage of this tool and a series of recommendations on how interagency acquisitions can be better utilized. contracting

Performance-Based Acquisition: What is the Problem?

Submitted by on Thu, 03/12/2009 - 20:00

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.

Success Factors for Implementing Shared Services in Government

Submitted by on Thu, 03/12/2009 - 20:00

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

The Multisector Workforce: How Can We Manage It Better?

Submitted by on Thu, 03/12/2009 - 20:00

Over the last 15 years federal government managers have relied on a much broader and more diverse set of personnel for carrying out agency missions, with private sector contractors assuming a much greater role than in the past. A key question is what are the implications of this shift to a multisector workforce for how federal agencies accomplish their missions. A more robust human capital planning process is needed to address multisector workforce issues.

Leveraging Web 2.0 in Government

Submitted by on Thu, 03/12/2009 - 20:00

In the past year, there has been enormous hype in the media about the growth of Web 2.0 and the use of social networking by the millennial generation. There has also been much publicity about the use of Web 2.0 in business and government. This report deconstructs the hype and presents the potential uses of social computing in government, discusses the barriers to Web 2.0, and presents what citizens think about Web 2.0.

Best Practices for Implementing Agile Methods: A Guide for Department of Defense Software Developers

Submitted by on Thu, 03/12/2009 - 20:00

Traditional plan-driven software development has been widely used in the government because it's considered to be less risky, more consistent, and structured. But there has been a shift from this approach to Agile methods which are more flexible, resulting in fast releases by working in an incremental fashion to adapt to the reality of the changing or unclear requirements.

Integrating Service Delivery Across Levels of Government: Case Studies of Canada and Other Countries

Submitted by on Thu, 03/12/2009 - 20:00

Public services are traditionally delivered through a number of government agencies via programs that are not connected to each other. In the midst of this decentralized fragmentation, two trends - a citizen-centric philosophy and network model of service delivery - are driving demands to integrate the delivery of citizen-oriented services across levels of government. The rapid increase in technology allows this new collaborative approach to service design and delivery to be a successful substitute for the old hierarchical approach.

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