Executive Dashboard Background Research Compendium

Stronger management performance capability will result in greater accountability, consistent monitoring, and reliable reporting that will increase the Agency's ability to move toward a more efficient and effective management platform. USAID currently lacks central management performance capability resulting in weak accountability, ad-hoc monitoring, and unreliable reporting that puts the Agency at risk. The Management/Performance-Based Project (M/MPBP) is launching an effort to build USAID's management performance capacity to include strategic planning, monitoring and evaluation, and communicating results. Modeled after the decades-long performance management experience on the program side, this effort will initiate long-term planning for management functions; establish rigorous standards for management metrics and data quality; and promote a process for transparent monitoring and reporting via executive dashboards. An executive dashboard captures and reports specific data points from various departments within an organization, providing a visual snapshot of performance. The proposed Executive Dashboard will provide metrics on key areas, including Procurement Management, Information Technology Management, Human Resources Management, Financial Management, and Management Services. The dashboard will enable USAID to understand what's working, what's not, and what can be improved. The compendium of background research for the executive dashboard contains examples of the Executive Dashboard implementation by government and non-government agencies. Current dashboard implementation in the commercial and public sector were researched to explore options that can be considered for a scalable and usable solution. The IT Dashboard, a website enabling federal agencies, industry, the general public, and other stakeholders to view details of federal information technology investments, was researched as a model for the Executive Dashboard. The IT Dashboard provides the public with an online window into the details of Federal information technology (IT) investments and provides users with the ability to track the progress of investments over time. The dashboard displays data received from federal agencies' reports to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), including general information on over 7,000 Federal IT investments and detailed data for over 800 of those investments that agencies classify as "major." The performance data used to track the 800 major IT investments is based on milestones contained in agency reports to OMB called "Capital Asset Plans," commonly referred to as "Exhibit 300s." Federal Agency Chief Information Officers (CIOs) are responsible for evaluating and updating select data on a monthly basis, which is accomplished through interfaces provided on the IT Dashboard website. HUD's TechStat sessions are a key component of their approach to preventing poor project performance. These sessions are modeled after the OMB TechStat methodology and are used to proactively check under each project's hood to identify and mitigate risks in concert with the Department's Information Technology Management (ITM) Framework. Integrating TechStats with ITM Framework reinforces efforts to institutionalize rigor, discipline, and maturity into the IT project planning and management life cycle. HUD has conducted more than 40 TechStat sessions to bring much needed transparency and accountability to its highest priority IT projects. The reviews are based on a standard set of criteria and are reported in a weekly project status dashboard to reflect project health and identify issues that require immediate attention.