Federal Govt. Making Progress on Management Scorec

Five-year trend analysis identifies progress in the President’s Management Agenda since inception of the scorecard process, but also significant room for improvement.

Federal departments and agencies are making consistent progress in some management areas and uneven advances in others, according analysis of the Executive Branch Management Scorecard by program management services provider Robbins-Gioia. The report points to opportunities for continued improvement and application of program management best practices as departments and agencies execute against the five governmentwide management initiatives identified in the President’s Management Agenda (PMA).

Since 2001, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has evaluated on a quarterly basis 25 federal departments and major agencies on their advancements in achieving the five initiatives: strategic management of human capital, competitive sourcing, improved financial performance, expanded electronic government, and budget and performance integration. Departments and agencies are evaluated on a green-yellow-red scorecard with scores based on the scorecard standards for success. Under each of these standards, an agency is green or yellow if it meets all of the standards for success listed in the respective column, and red if it has any one of a number of serious flaws listed in the red column.

While many departments and agencies demonstrate strong progress, only one, the U.S. Department of Labor, has earned green status marks across the board on the scorecard — attaining this level of performance on three out of the four 2005 quarterly scorecards.


In Robbins-Gioia’s five-year trend analysis, the strategic management of human capital initiative shows the greatest progress, with 13 of the 25 evaluated organizations achieving green status marks on the December 31, 2005 scorecard and none earning red status marks. This category also shows the most consistent progress, with green status marks steadily increasing over the evaluation periods. Conversely, the improved financial performance initiative demonstrates the least progress, including 17 organizations still earning red status marks — only three fewer than on the baseline scorecard issued in 2001. Departments and agencies either excel or fail in this category, with either zero or one organization falling in the middle yellow category on each of the 2005 quarterly scorecards.

The expanded electronic government initiative shows the greatest fluctuation in progress toward green, with only six organizations achieving green status marks on the December 31, 2005 scorecard — up from the previous evaluation period in which only four organizations achieved green status marks, but down from the March 31, 2005 scorecard, which featured nine green organizations. The competitive sourcing and budget and performance integration initiatives both follow a similar trend, demonstrating consistent progress toward improvement — with the number of red status scores decreasing as yellow and green numbers increase. On the December 31, 2005 scorecard, 10 and 14 agencies respectively still fell in the middle yellow category.

“Sound program and project planning, execution, management, and evaluation are essential to getting to green marks in each of the five management initiatives,” said Michael Sledge, Robbins-Gioia president and chief operating officer. “We applaud departments and agencies that leverage consistent, robust program management in their operations and support and encourage other government organizations in following their leads.”

Based on OMB assessments of each federal department and major agency, the Robbins-Gioia analysis maps progress since the inception of the Executive Branch Management Scorecard 2001 baseline.

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