Additional resources – Glossary

Accountability

The responsibility of one party to another party. In government, the responsibility of elected and appointed officials to those who elected or chose them or who provide the resources with which services are provided. Being obliged to explain one's actions, to justify what one does. Requires governments to answer to the citizenry-to justify the raising of public resources and to explain the purposes for which they are used. Governmental accountability is based on the belief that the citizenry has a “right to know” (GASB 1989, para. 56).

Action plan

The detailed plan for processes that will convert resources (inputs) into services or products. Usually consists of activities and performance processes designed to produce the outputs that are aimed at achieving desired results.

Activity

A specific action or process undertaken by an organization to convert resources to products or services (outputs).

Activity-based costing

A methodology that measures the cost of activities, assigns resources to activities and assigns activities to cost objects based on their use, and recognizes the causal relationships of cost drivers to activities.

Activity-based management

An approach to the management of activities within processes as the route to continuously improve both the benefit received by customers and the efficiency with which the service or product is provided. Causes of activities are identified, measured, and used along with other activity information for performance evaluation; emphasis is on the reduction or elimination of non-value-adding activities. Activity-based management draws on activity-based costing data as a major source for information.

Agency

An administrative division of government with specific functions. An organization that offers a particular kind of service, program, or assistance.

Aggregation

A group or mass of distinct things or individuals. Gathered into, or considered as, a whole; total.

Analysis

An examination to find out the reason for results; the nature, proportion, function, and interrelationship of results. A statement of the product of this process.

Balanced scorecard

An approach using multiple measures to evaluate managerial performance. These measures may be financial or nonfinancial, internal or external, and short-term or long-term. The scorecard allows a determination as to whether a manager is achieving certain objects at the expense of others that may be equally or more important.

Baseline

A starting point for assessing changes in performance and for establishing objectives or targets for future performance.

Benchmark

In the context of outcomes and performance discussion, the term refers to desired program results. It may include a target or standard for the program to achieve. It is also used to denote best practices.

Budget

Quantitative plan of activities and programs expressed in terms of assets, liabilities, revenues, expenses (or expenditures), and in some case outputs or outcomes. A performance-based budget may express the organizational goals in terms of specific financial and operating objectives.

Citizen perspective/satisfaction

Feedback obtained by governments from samples of their citizens and from customers of specific services about the extent of their perception of or satisfaction with government services, including suggestions for improvements.

Communicating

Passing along, imparting, transmitting; making known. Effectively using words, charts, graphs, and other methods to convey ideas or information so they will be understood.

Communication channels

Various methods or systems of sending or receiving information.

Community outcome or result

A broad-level outcome affected by services, products, and explanatory factors beyond those provided by any single organization. For example, the income level of residents is affected by the economy of the area and nation, the programs of the government, their own motivation, and many other factors.

Comparable

Able to be compared or suitable for comparison.

Comparisons

Various forms of information about reported performance measures that provide a basis for assessing the level of or changes in results. This may take various forms-for example, comparisons of reported information with (a) several earlier fiscal years, (b) targets established by the entity including targets established as part of the budgetary process, (c) externally established norms or standards of performance, (d) other parts or subunits of the same entity, or (e) other, comparable entities.

Comprehensive

Covering completely or broadly. Including the necessary information to communicate the major or essential aspects of an organization’s performance.

Concise

Brief and to the point; short and clear.

Consistency

Conformity of information or measures over successive periods of reporting

Cost effectiveness

A comparison of the cost of a service to the benefits derived from that service.

Cost of services

The cost, usually on an accrual basis, of providing a specific service. May or may not include indirect cost.

Criterion

A reference point against which other things can be evaluated.

Customer

Any category of person that a program serves or directly affects (other than those involved in delivering the service).

Decision making

Purposeful selection from among a set of alternatives in light of a given objective. Decision making is intertwined with the other functions of management, executive, or legislative bodies, such as planning, budgeting, coordinating, and controlling.

Department

A separate part, division, or branch of an organization, government, business, or school.

Direct costs

Costs, usually on an accrual basis, that are clearly identifiable to or specifically associated with a service, program, or department.

Disaggregation

Separated into component parts; breakouts of information-often demographic, geographic, or by the component of an organization.

Economy

The level or amount of resources applied to a service, especially an assessment of whether the amount applied was appropriate to produce the services considered necessary to achieve an objective.

Effectiveness

An ends-oriented concept that measures the degree to which predetermined goals and objectives for a particular activity or program are achieved. May include both intended and unintended results of a program as part of the measurement of effectiveness.

Efficiency

The relationship between efforts (or inputs) to outputs or outcomes. Measured by indicators of the resources used or cost per unit of output or outcome. A resource-usage concept, also with a least-cost notion, that is concerned with maximizing outputs at minimal cost or using minimum resources.

Effort

The amount of financial and nonfinancial resources (in terms of money, material, and so forth) that are applied to producing a product or providing a service (output).

Evaluation

A careful examination, analysis, or appraisal; an examination of the reasons or causes of results.

Expenditures

An outflow of current financial resources for current operations, capital outlays, or long-term debt principal retirement and interest.

Expenses

A measure of costs incurred (accrual basis), usually measured for a specific period such as a year.

Explanatory factors

Includes a variety of information about the environment and other factors that might affect an organization's performance. They can be either factors substantially outside the control of the entity, such as environmental and demographic characteristics, or factors over which the entity has some control, such as staffing patterns. Examples include weather conditions for road maintenance, percentage of students with English as a second language for education, or quality of source water for water service.

Final outcome

An end objective. The end result that is desired or anticipated.

Goal

The condition or state that one is striving to achieve. Usually long-term and may be beyond what might reasonably be expected to be achieved.

Initial outcome

The result of a product or service that occurs immediately or very soon after the product is delivered or the service is provided. For example, the initial outcome of a program to inform residents about the value of recycling might be the level of awareness the residents have after attending the program. (The long-term objective would be to increase recycling.)

Input

See Effort.

Intermediate outcome

A measure of progress toward achieving an objective that measures movement toward the final desired results (or long-term outcome).

Key measure

A measure of the essential results or objectives of an organization, program, or service.

Link

Serving to connect or tie; to show the relationship between.

Long-term outcome

See Final outcome.

Managing for results

A system of management used to focus decisions and activities on clear and measurable results, as well as costs, outputs, and outcomes, of organizational or governmental activities and actions. Its purpose is to aid the organization or government in maximizing the efficiency, quality, and effectiveness of services and programs. Ideally, managing for results is a systematic approach to managing an organization that is fact-based, results-oriented, open, and accountable.

Mission

The charge, assignment, or purpose given to an organization or part of that organization.

Needs assessment (external and internal)

Analysis of the external conditions that a program or service is (or is considering) trying to address and the external and internal factors that might affect its performance.

Objective

A statement of the condition or state one expects to achieve. An objectives should be realistic, measurable, generally within the control of the organization, and time constrained.

Outcome

The basic unit of measurement of progress toward achieving an objective. An outcome may be initial, intermediate, or long-term.

Output

A measure of the quantity of a service or product provided (may include a quality component).

Perception

Citizens’ and customers’ feelings about conditions in the community or the operation and results of services or programs.

Performance audit

An appraisal of how effective a particular activity is in carrying out the organization's policies and procedures. May cover any activity within a department, division, or local area and is usually performed by persons independent of the organization. Can also be a review of a program to ensure that it is achieving its objectives (effectiveness) and is doing so at a reasonable cost (economy and efficiency).

Performance measure or indicator

A quantifiable indicator of progress, achievement, and efficiency that includes: outcome, output, input, efficiency, and explanatory indicators.

Performance report

An internal or external report conveying information about the results of an organization’s services and programs.

Policy

An adopted principle, plan, or course of action, as pursued by a government, organization, or individual.

Procedure

A particular course of action or way of doing something. The act, method, or manner of proceeding in some process or course of action; especially, the sequence of steps to be followed.

Process

See Activity.

Productivity

The ratio of the quantity and quality of units produced or service provided to the resources applied. The relative efficiency of activity-that is, the amount of products or services produced compared to the amount of resources used to produce them.

Program

Groupings of activities aimed at providing certain products or services with a common purpose. A set of activities undertaken to realize one common purpose with an identifiable end result or outcome.

Program plan

A plan of action for a set of activities designed to realize one common purpose with an identifiable end result or outcome.

Quality

A measure of conformance of a product or service to certain specifications or standards.

Quality of life measures

Generally, community or national indicators that provide a basis for developing a comprehensive picture of overall well-being. The variables included in definitions of quality of life are diverse, complex, and wide ranging. The indicators include traditional economic measures of employment, income distribution, public safety, education, and housing, along with assessments of environmental factors, infrastructure, health, and education. They may also include indicators of personal well-being such as measures of spiritual, social, and cultural well-being.

Relevant

Having a significant and demonstrable bearing on the matter at hand. In reporting, to have a close logical relationship between the information provided and the purpose for which it is intended or needed.

Reliable

To be able to be depended on, or to be trusted, to be accurate. Information that is verifiable and free from bias and faithfully represents what it purports to represent.

Reporting period

The period of time covered by a report-for example, quarterly or annually.

Resources (resource costs)

Costs of economic inputs used to perform activities. They include people's salaries as well as the cost of materials, supplies, equipment, technologies, and facilities.

Risk

The probability of a negative occurrence affecting the entity's operational performance such as the possible reduction in the well-being of citizens because of the failure of an organization’s program.

Risk assessment

The process of measuring and analyzing the risk associated with achieving or not achieving desired results.

Scope

The programs or services covered by a report, or the extent of a report’s coverage of an organization.

Secondary outcomes

Significant indirect consequences, intended or unintended and positive or negative, that occur as a result of providing a service. Normally, results that are not directly associated with stated objectives and therefore are not anticipated.

Service efforts and accomplishments (SEA)

Measures of the resources used, the effect of their use, and the efficiency with which they are used. These measures include measures of service efforts (the amount of financial and non-financial resources used), measures of service accomplishments (outputs and outcomes), and measures that relate efforts to accomplishments (efficiency).

Strategic plan

A plan or blueprint that clearly and concisely states the mission, goals, and objectives of an organization, along with what the organization plans to do to meet those goals and objectives.

Strategies

Based on goals and objectives, a strategy is the means for transforming inputs into outputs, and ultimately outcomes, with the best use of resources. A strategy reflects the planned use of budgetary and other resources.

Target

What an organization states as its intended results for a program or service.

Timely

Soon enough after the end of the reporting period to be useful for making decisions.

Trend

A measure of the direction or tendency of performance over time.

Understandability

Clear and concise enough for users to perceive and comprehend.

Valid

Well grounded on principles or evidence. Able to stand criticism or objection; sound, meaningful.

Verifiable

Capable of verification; can be proved to be true or accurate.

Verification

Establishment or confirmation of the truth or accuracy of information, or the process of checking the truth or accuracy of information.