As performance management has evolved, it has encompassed many different tools and approaches including measurement, data analysis, evidence-based management, process improvement, research and evaluation. In the past, many of the efforts to improve performance in government have been fragmented, separated into silos and labeled with a variety of different names including performance-based budgeting, performance-informed management, managing for results and so on. Making Government Work: The Promises and Pitfalls of Performance-Informed Management by Katherine Barrett and Rich Greene is loaded with dozens of stories of what practitioners are currently working on-what's working and what's not. The benefits are ample, so are the challenges. This book describes both, along with practical steps taken by practitioners to make government work better. Readers will discover that while the authors strive to meet the documentation standards of carefully vetted academic papers, the approach they take is journalistic. Over the last year, Barrett and Greene talked to scores of state and local officials, as well as academics and other national experts to find out how performance management tools and approaches have changed, and what is coming in the near-term future. Performance management has been in a state of evolution for decades now, and so Barrett and Greene have endeavored to capture the state of the world as it is today. By detailing both the challenges and conquests of performance management in Making Government Work: The Promises and Pitfalls of Performance-Informed Management, Barrett and Greene insure readers will find the kind of balanced information that is helpful to both academics and practitioners-and that can move the field forward.
Acknowledgements Preface About the Authors 1. Overview 2. Challenges Sustainability The human element Differing perspectives 3. Benefits Exhibit A: Montgomery County A catalogue of benefits San Jose, California Minnesota Wisconsin Indiana Denver, Colorado King County, Washington Case Study - New Orleans: Shock Therapy 4. History Progress at the state level Our ringside view Federal advances Box: Building the federal performance infrastructure Ups and downs Alternate approaches Box: Five major changes over the last thirty years Case study - Service Efforts and Accomplishments 5. Outcomes Knowing the goal Box: The demise of Oregon Benchmarks Striving for efficiency Selecting top-level measures Citizen surveys Connecting to national measures Case study - Washington: Cross-agency collaboration 6. Performance Budgeting Performance budgeting legislation Impediments Attention to evidence Budget execution The environment matters Case study - Austin: A budget with a vision Case study - Illinois: Unrealistic expectations 7. Pitfalls Insufficient resources Lack of data expertise Weak internal training Counterproductive incentives Slow response Lack of sustainability The practitioner-academic disconnect Fear of adverse reaction Too much hype Flaws with targets A limited focus Neglect of intractable problems Legislative indifference Politics trumps management Checklist: Rx for Pitfalls 8. Buy-In Resisters Accountability vs. performance improvement Agency ownership Stat evolution A collaborative approach Case study -- Colorado Q&A on achieving buy-in 9. Validation Consequences of bad data Bad data and drugs Inconsistent comparisons Data fudging and outright cheating Verification A path forward Box: The roots of inaccuracy Sloppy data Ineffective system controls Inconsistent information and changing definitions Privatization/contractor/third party issues Case study - New York: Changing the definitions 10. Data progress Service delivery Open data Data sharing Data governance The push for more helpful data Box - Outdated technology Box: The path forward Case study - Little Rock, Arkansas: Of data and human beings 11. Evaluation Evaluation on the frontlines Shifting the paradigm Box: The evidence movement Box: A cost-benefit approach Case study -- Los Angeles: Solving a police recruiting puzzle Resources Glossary Index
