Throughout the congressional campaign cycle there have been loud calls from both sides for the government to spend taxpayer dollars wisely. That’s why, regardless of the outcome of today’s elections, the Obama White House is unlikely to change its performance measurement agenda for federal agencies and programs.
And for good reason. In these tough economic times the government can’t afford to spend taxpayer dollars on failing or inefficient programs, projects or other activities.
In the September edition of Service Contractor, the Office of Management and Budget’s Shelley Metzenbaum, the associate director for performance and personnel management, explained how and why OMB is measuring program performance across federal agencies. She also explained what actions professional services firms can take to further these goals and improve their own work to help their government customers.
She said:
There is enormous opportunity here for professional services firms because agencies need a lot of measurement, analytic, and communication skills and few currently have the full suite of skills they need. Agencies may need assistance understanding how to measure outcomes in affordable, yet actionable, ways. This will require them to figure out the best ways to code data to look for anomalies, patterns, and relationships. They may need assistance doing ‘deep dives’ to find root causes and to map causal chains. They may also need help thinking about the delivery chain and the levers they can use to influence actions to improve outcomes. Professional services firms can also help agencies understand how to establish mechanisms that drive continual improvement, minimize measurement manipulation, and maximize measurement value.
Let me be honest, though. Many federal agencies do not yet understand that they need these skills and this capacity. Many have, historically, used performance and other measures to fulfill reporting requirements, but have not appreciated the need and value of analyzing it, or communicating it to specific audiences. Professional services firms could play an incredibly valuable role finding and sharing examples with current and prospective clients that illustrate how, why, and when to measure, analyze, and communicate.
In the same Service Contractor issue, three of PSC’s board members—NCI Information Systems’ Chris Bishop, IBM’s Charles Prow, and Ernst & Young’s Marc Anderson—also weighed in on the question of how professional services firms affect the management of federal projects. You can read their views here.
