Identifying Performance Objectives
Excerpted from the GSA "Guide to Planning, Acquiring, and Managing
Information Technology Systems"
The first step [in setting the performance framework for the acquisition] is to identify related goals and objectives in the strategic and annual plans. This step is best illustrated by several hypothetical examples based on the U.S. Department of Education's Strategic Plan (1998 - 2002), one of the top-rated GPRA plans for that period.
Consider, for example, the person in the agency's information technology office who realizes that a local area network is not robust enough for current demands. One of the strategic plan's goals is to make the Department "a high-performance organization by focusing on results, service quality, and customer satisfaction." This goal is supported by an objective that "information technology investments are sound and used to improve impact and efficiency." The objective has a core strategy to "ensure that the Department has a cost-effective, efficient, accessible, and reliable network infrastructure, with modern work place software and hardware, to promote productivity and meet business needs." Finally, the strategic plan provides one performance indicator (measure): "At least 90% of all employees will assess productivity as 'significantly improved' as a result of available technology, as shown by the employee survey in 2000." Note that even though the person in the agency's information technology office may not have contributed to the strategic plan with this specific need in mind, the plan nonetheless provides the foundation, partial justification, and even a performance measure that apply to the need.
In contrast, assume that a program manager -- who realized that a more powerful capability for electronic information dissemination would help meet customer needs better and reduce costs -- contributed this need directly to the strategic plan. In that case, the mission-criticality and objective is well established for the need, and it has undergone review in the agency, at OMB, and in Congress. Something like this scenario may have happened with this goal, objective, and core strategy in the Department of Education's strategic plan:
Goal: Ensure access to post-secondary education and lifelong learning.
Objective: Post-secondary student aid delivery and program management is efficient, financially sound, and customer-responsive.
Core Strategy: An integrated, accurate, and efficient student aid delivery system, including (in part) the supporting strategies to (1) integrate the multiple student aid databases based on student-level records and (2) increase the community's use of the Department of Education's web site as a principal source of financial aid information, programmatic and technical publications, and software.
In the final hypothetical example, an agency top-level manager realizes that, in order to fulfill the Department's mission, new investments in studies, people, and capital assets may be required. For example, the Department of Education's strategic plan includes the following:
Goal: Help all students reach challenging academic standards so that they are prepared for responsible citizenship, further learning, and productive employment.
Objective: Schools are strong, safe, disciplined, and drug-free.
Core Strategy: Disseminate effective programs and strategies through technical assistance and training, conferences, publications, and use of technology.
Although the strategy is somewhat general, it provides the foundation for agency staff to propose innovative initiatives for funding in support of the goal and objective.
Given these examples, it is important to understand that these goals and objectives are focused on mission and programs (not acquisitions)... and further that, as is apparent in the student aid example, more than one acquisition may eventually be required to meet the goal or the objective.
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