Re-engineering Government through Big Data

The Partnership for Public Service and the IBM Center for the Business of Government recently released the second report, “From Data to Decisions II: Building an Analytics Culture,” in a series on how using innovative analytical tools can improve capabilities and efficiency. The initial report explored how seven federal agencies, including FEMA and the IRS, use data analytics. This follow-up report explains the specific components of analytics agencies should implement to produce more effective data and build more open analytics culture.

Using the original seven agencies and insights from focus groups as reference points, the report advocates agencies build upon current practices and incorporate an “analytics approach to management.” Agencies must “take stock of their priorities and activities, identify opportunities to improve how they deliver results, and use analytics to demonstrate they are meeting mission goals efficiently and could do so at less cost in the future.” The collaborative report states that the outlined practices are widely transferable across agencies, and that implementation would create significant internal and external benefits.

To further explain the recommendations made in these reports, the Partnership for Public Service released videos of panel discussions on the topic.