Performance measurement timeframes – what is optimal
A performance measure is a numeric description of an agency’s work and the results of that work. Performance measures are based on data, and tell a story about whether an agency or activity is achieving its objectives and if progress is being made toward attaining policy or organisational goals.
It’s a quantifiable expression of the amount, cost, or result of activities that indicate how much, how well, and at what level, products or services are provided to customers during a given time period. There are several reasons to measure, monitor and report performance of work.
Children regularly bring home objective measures of their performance at school example test scores and report cards. That are given at a set time frame to parents to see how well their children are faring at school. For instance they’re a result and culmination to see and measure all that a child has learnt through the course of their school year from homework to assignments done and exams written.
Even at home there’s a performance measure of the water and electricity usage bill. It offers a time frame of how much you’ve used and amount payable and when your monthly bill should be paid. It’s the law each government agency defines its mission and establishes measurable goals for achieving desirable results for those who receive its services and the taxpayers who pay for those services.
For the purpose of assessing activity performance, each state agency shall establish quality and productivity objectives for each major activity in its budget. The objectives must be consistent with the missions and goals developed under this section. Take for example in a budget speech.
Budget Decisions requires agency budget requests to be linked to performance measures so budget analysts can understand what results or improvements to expect from an investment of resources. In addition, the Priorities of Government process uses performance data as criteria for assessing which activities are most effective, and thus should be the highest priority for investment.