Posts By John Kamensky

Building an Analytics Culture

Using analytics to make better decisions is taking root in agencies across the government, notes a new report by the Partnership for Public Service and the IBM Center. The report explores how a dozen pioneers did it, and leaders from some of these organizations offer advice on how others can, as well. Investing in, andRead… Read more »

Government Reform: Insights for the Future of the Movement (Part 6)

World Bank seminars this past Spring surprised me when I learned that several developing countries seem to be on the cutting edge of the global performance movement. But the series offered some occasionally cautionary insights, as well, as to what may be next for the movement. Some encouraging insights for the global performance management movementRead… Read more »

Next Four Years: Managing a Balancing Act

How can leaders of Federal programs improve outcomes by capitalizing on approaches and tools developed in the “chiefs” communities (Chief Financial, Information, Acquisition, and Human Capital Officers)? Background Twenty years ago, federal agencies typically did not have senior executives leading key mission support functions such as finance, technology, acquisition, or workforce. Over those two decades,Read… Read more »

Government Reform: Inspirations from Developing Countries (Part 5)

Several developing countries are making seemingly breathtaking progress in developing performance management frameworks from scratch. What can we learn from them? Today’s focus is on the commonalities in the performance management approaches used across four developing countries. The World Bank seminars this past Spring continue to have me mulling about the progress of the performanceRead… Read more »

Government Reform: Kenya and Malaysia (Part 4)

Several developing countries are making seemingly breathtaking progress in developing performance management frameworks from scratch. What can we learn from them? Today’s focus is on Kenya and Malaysia. The World Bank seminars this past Spring continue to have me mulling about the progress of the performance movement internationally, and how surprised I was that severalRead… Read more »

Government Reform: The Colombia and South Africa Examples (Part 3)

Several developing countries are making seemingly breathtaking progress in developing performance management frameworks from scratch. What can we learn from them? Today’s focus is on Colombia and South Africa. The World Bank seminars this past Spring on international progress in performance management continue to have me mulling about the progress of the performance movement internationally,Read… Read more »

Government Reform: The New Zealand Example (Part 2)

New Zealand’s government reform efforts over the past quarter century have yielded both positive results as well as cautionary tales. Its proposed next steps, however, are worth examining. At the World Bank’s series of forums on performance management, I found John Whitehead’s insights particularly interesting. Whitehead is a former secretary of the Treasury in NewRead… Read more »

OMB Guidance: What Is a Program?

This is a question to which agencies will now have to come up with an answer. And it won’t be easy! Background Earlier this Spring, Senator Tom Coburn grilled an OMB witness at a hearing about why OMB had not yet implemented a provision in the GPRA Modernization Act requiring the creation of a government-wideRead… Read more »

OMB Guidance: Prepare to SOAR

OMB has released its long-awaited guidance for the implementation of new provisions in the GPRA Modernization Act of 2010. It describes a novel way to meet a statutory requirement to annually judge the performance of government programs. Agencies will have to put this new approach in place over the next two years. A provision buriedRead… Read more »

A New Federal Performance Framework

OMB has released a new performance framework for the federal government. It is embedded in its guidance to agencies on how they should prepare their budget requests for fiscal year 2014, which is called OMB Circular A-11. Last week, the Office of Management and Budget released its annual technical guidance to agencies regarding how theyRead… Read more »