Exam 4: Measuring and Managing Performance: Present and Future

Goals are measures of program activities.

Forecasting should use multiple methods.

Equity measures are used to compare performance across different groups.

Benchmarks are standards against which performance is measured.

Professional associations provide performance measures that agencies should use.

Short-term outcomes are the same as long-term outcomes.

Peer organizations are those that are one step above the class of one's organization.

Whereas planning discusses what the future will look like, forecasting provides a normative model of what the future should look like.

Forecasting methods are generally distinguished by whether they are based on statistical analysis or on expert judgments.

A forecast is defined as a prediction about the future.

Outcomes are defined as the immediate, direct results of program activities.

The logic model defines a way to describe relationships among resources, activities, and results.

Performance measurement is used sparingly.

Some managers mistake workload ratios for efficiency measures.

The longer the forecasting period, the more certain it is.

Performance measurement developed from program evaluation.

Performance measurement provides a system of key indicators of program activities and performance.

Activities are defined as the processes, events, technologies, and actions that a program undertakes with its resources, to produce results.

Effectiveness is defined as the unit cost to produce a good or service.

Performance measurement provides a real-time assessment of what a program or policy is doing.