Using Administrative Data for Statistical Purposes

OMB has now issued guidance to that effect, encouraging agencies to use existing program administrative data in new ways.

The Obama Administration has championed “open data” by encouraging agencies to make a wider range of agency statistical information available to the public.  Its philosophy is “information is a valuable national resource and strategic asset.” To that end, it has iss

Money for Moneyball Government

While the headlines about the president’s new budget focus on the big numbers, there is a significant back story about what the Office of Management and Budget says is the expanded use of “evidence and rigorous evaluation to improve policy outcomes”  when it comes to the details of the budget.

Cross-Agency Priority Goals: 2014 (Part 1)

The following are edited excerpts from Performance.gov.

Cross-Agency Priority goals address the longstanding challenge of tackling horizontal problems across vertical organizational silos. 15 Cross-Agency Priority Goals were announced in the 2015 Budget, these include 7 Mission-oriented and 8 Management-focused goals with a four-year time horizon.

Cross-Agency Priority Goals: 2014 (Part 2)

The following are edited excerpts from Performance.gov.

An earlier post provides excerpts from the seven mission-related cross-agency priority goals.  This post provides excerpts from the management-related cross-agency priority goals:

(UPDATED: 7-1-2014)

Performance Budgeting: Lessons from the States

New research findings by a team led Dr. Daniel Mullins at American University examine recent state-level trends in the use of performance budgeting or “budgeting for results” approaches. This research, presented at the annual conference of the American Society for Public Administration, offers some insights for any future federal performance budgeting initiative.

Mapping the Government

The National Geographic periodically publishes updated maps of the contours of the U.S. but there is no institution that takes on a similar task, updating the contours of the ever-changing federal government.   However the Administrative Conference has recently updated a long-forgotten “map” last prepared by the Congressional Research Service in 1980.  The authors are David Lewis and Jennifer Selin, of Vanderbilt University.

Creating Dual Operating Systems

Large companies (and governments) cannot ignore the daily demands of running large enterprises that depend on hierarchy and routines, Kotter observes.  These structures and processes work well in stable, predictable environments and their evolution and refinements have contributed greatly to society in the past hundred years.

Agencies Set New Priority Goals

The 2010 revision of the Government Performance and Results Act requires federal agencies to identify a limited number of two-year Agency Priority Goals.  These action-oriented goals appear in their recently-released fiscal year 2015 budget proposals and are aligned with their newly released strategic goals and objectives.

Innovation Australian-Style

The current edition of The Public Manager describes the Australian national government’s approach to systematically embedding innovation into agency operations.  In an article by Australian civil servant Alex Roberts, one of the champions of innovation Down Under, he says the new mantra for government is “do better with less.”

In 2009, the Australian national government’s Management Adv

The Secret Sauce of Effective Progress Reviews

So, how do you make PerformancStat meetings effective?  OMB says that these review meetings should be constructive and focus on learning.  Astute observers, such as Harry Hatry at the Urban Institute, say that leaders of these meetings need to be “hands on” and actively engaged in order to convey the

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Emeritus Senior Fellow
IBM Center for The Business of Government

Mr. Kamensky is an Emeritus Senior Fellow with the IBM Center for The Business of Government and was an Associate Partner with IBM's Global Business Services.

During 24 years of public service, he had a significant role in helping pioneer the federal government's performance and results orientation. Mr. Kamensky is passionate about helping transform government to be more results-oriented, performance-based, customer-driven, and collaborative in nature.

Prior to joining the IBM Center, he served for eight years as deputy director of Vice President Gore's National Partnership for Reinventing Government. Before that, he worked at the Government Accountability Office where he played a key role in the development and passage of the Government Performance and Results Act.

Since joining the IBM Center, he has co-edited six books and writes and speaks extensively on performance management and government reform.  Current areas of emphasis include transparency, collaboration, and citizen engagement.  He also blogs about management challenges in government.

Mr. Kamensky is a fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration and received a Masters in Public Affairs from the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, in Austin, Texas.