Leading Practices for Federal Websites Should Guide the Continued Development of Performance.gov in a Number of Areas

HowTo.gov is a key source of leading practices for federal website  development and management. OMB staff stated that, thus far, the specific legal requirements of  GPRAMA have been the primary framework used to guide efforts to  develop Performance.gov. They have been focused on working to comply  with these requirements by providing information on agency and cross- agency priority goals and by establishing a phased development plan for  integrating additional information from agency strategic plans,  performance plans, and performance reports and the inventory of federal  programs. OMB and GSA staff members have said, however, that the  leading practices provided by HowTo.gov will help guide the future  development of Performance.gov. GPRAMA provides direction on the purposes and audiences for  Performance.gov. In addition to specifying the types of information to be  made available on the website, the act states that information on the  website “shall be readily accessible and easily found on the Internet by  the public and members and committees of Congress.” OMB’s written  guidance states that Performance.gov “serves as the public window on  the Federal Government’s goals and performance in key areas of focus,”  and will be “the single, government-wide performance website required  under the GPRA Modernization Act.” OMB’s written guidance and  information on the website also say that Performance.gov will make  information about cross-agency and agency-specific goals and  performance easier to find for the public and Congress, as required by  GPRAMA, as well as for delivery partners, agency employees, the media,  and other stakeholders. However, if the  specific intended uses of Performance.gov are not clarified, while taking  into consideration what the law requires, it could lead to varying ideas and  expectations for how Performance.gov should be developed and  designed and the audiences it should serve. HowTo.gov also recommends that developers engage  potential users through focus groups and other outreach; regularly  conduct usability tests to gather insight into navigation, the organization of  content, and the ease with which different types of users can complete  specific tasks; and collect and analyze performance, customer  satisfaction, and other metrics. HowTo.gov states that these efforts are  important for collecting and analyzing information about audiences, their  needs, and how they are using, or want to use, the website. Furthermore, while a focus of GPRAMA is to make federal performance  information more accessible to the public, efforts to collect input and  feedback from interested members of the public and other potential  audiences have thus far been limited to the collection of suggestions  through the website’s “Feedback” page. Of the 24 metrics recommended  by Howto.gov, 15 are currently tracked for Performance.gov. HowTo.gov also recommends setting goals for metrics, and making sure  that these align with the objectives of a website, to help prioritize and  guide design changes for improved performance and usability. These  goals can be identified based on prevailing practices or the desire to  improve a particular metric over time. Except for customer satisfaction,  which is discussed later in this report, OMB has not yet established goals  for any recommended metrics. GSA staff acknowledged the need to collect additional recommended  metrics for the website. OMB and GSA staff have said that as the phased development of  Performance.gov takes place, they expect to use outreach to a broader  set of audiences, including members of the public, and usability testing  with these audiences to make Performance.gov more “public-facing” and  “citizen-centric.” While they have developed a general time frame for  conducting usability tests, they have not yet established a specific plan, a  timeline for other forms of outreach, or indicated the specific audiences  they plan to target for greater outreach. Recommendations for Executive Action

To enhance the value of Performance.gov for intended audiences and  improve the ability to identify and prioritize potential improvements, we  are recommending that the Director of the Office of Management and  Budget—working with the Performance Improvement Council and the  General Services Administration—take the following three actions:
Clarify the ways that intended audiences could use the information on  the Performance.gov website to accomplish specific tasks and specify  the design changes that would be required to facilitate that use. OMB staff  agreed with our recommendations. Specifically, this  report examines the extent to which Performance.gov incorporates  leading practices for the development of federal websites. We  reached out to groups most likely to use the information on  Performance.gov because of their management, oversight, advocacy, or  academic interest and asked them to review the website prior to our  interviews.
Why GAO Did This Study

Congress took steps to improve federal performance reporting through GPRAMA by requiring that OMB provide performance information via a publicly-available central website, Performance.gov. GAO is mandated to review GPRAMA's implementation at several junctures; this report is part of a series doing so. The report examines the extent to which Performance.gov incorporates leading practices for the development of federal websites. To address this objective, GAO compared the design of Performance.gov to GSA's Top 10 Best Practices for federal websites on HowTo.gov; reviewed performance reporting literature and OMB guidance; collected information from 13 national, state, and local performance reporting website practitioners; and interviewed federal and nonfederal groups most likely to use the information on the website because of their management, oversight, advocacy, or academic interests. These groups included officials from five selected agencies, staff from 13 U.S. Senate and House of Representatives congressional committees, and representatives from 10 transparency organizations and academic institutions.

What GAO Found

The GPRA Modernization Act of 2010 (GPRAMA) requires Performance.gov to provide program and performance information accessible to the public and members and committees of Congress. GAO used leading practices from HowTo.gov, a key source of guidance for federal website development and management, to assess the website and found that although Performance.gov incorporates some leading practices, opportunities exist to further incorporate them through continued development. For example, consistent with leading practices, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), working with the General Services Administration (GSA) and the Performance Improvement Council (PIC), provided information about the purposes and audiences for the website, but they have made limited efforts to clarify how audiences can use the information provided. If the specific uses of Performance.gov are not clarified, while taking into consideration what the law requires, it could lead to varying ideas and expectations for how Performance.gov should be developed.
Leading practices also recommend that developers engage potential users through focus groups and other outreach and regularly conduct usability tests to gather insight into areas such as navigation and the organization of website content. Efforts to collect input and feedback from potential audiences of Performance.gov, however, have been limited to the collection of suggestions through the website's "Feedback" page and briefings for selected audiences. Similarly, OMB has not yet conducted any usability tests of the website, although staff said that usability testing is being planned for September 2013. Without this information, the needs of the audiences and how they are using or want to use the website cannot guide further improvements.
In addition, leading practices recommend that agencies collect, analyze, and report on a baseline set of performance, customer satisfaction, and other metrics. Of the 24 recommended metrics, 15 are currently tracked for Performance.gov. Leading practices also recommend setting goals for metrics and making sure these align with the website's objectives to help prioritize and guide design changes. These goals can be identified based on prevailing practices or the desire to improve a particular metric over time. Except for the area of customer satisfaction, OMB has not established performance metric goals, which may make it more difficult to analyze the effectiveness of the website.
OMB staff stated that, thus far, the specific legal requirements of GPRAMA have been the primary framework used to guide efforts to develop Performance.gov. They said they have been focused on compliance with these requirements by providing information on agency and cross-agency priority goals and by establishing a phased development plan for integrating additional information from agency strategic plans, performance plans, and performance reports. OMB and GSA staff members said, however, that the leading practices provided by HowTo.gov will help guide the development of Performance.gov. They also noted that as the phased development of Performance.gov unfolds, they expect to use broader outreach to a wider audience, including members of the public, to make Performance.gov more "public-facing" and "citizen-centric."

What GAO Recommends

GAO recommends that OMB should work with GSA and the PIC to (1) clarify specific ways that intended audiences could use Performance.gov and specify changes to support these uses; (2) systematically collect information on the needs of intended audiences; and (3) collect recommended performance metrics and, as appropriate, create goals for those metrics. OMB staff agreed with these recommendations.