NCJ Number
222673
Date Published
March 2008
Length
88 pages
Annotation
This guide assists criminal justice professionals in the development of performance measures in the course of planning and designing new information-technology projects related to information sharing.
Abstract
The guide offers comments and advice on the process of developing performance measures and provides a catalog of examples for specific types of projects. The guide is also designed to assist criminal justice information-sharing professionals in implementing special summary performance measures that the U.S. Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) has developed to meet its responsibilities under the Government Performance and Results Act, which requires all Federal agencies to provide performance measures for assessing the value of their funding programs. The guide and catalog of examples focuses on the three types of performance measures most useful for determining the result of an agency's project: "output" measures (any product of a project activity); "outcome" measures (the consequences of a program or project); and "efficiency" measures (the effect of the project on a criminal justice agency's efficiency in its use of resources). After defining these types of performance measures, the characteristics of good performance measures are outlined. Four chapters then answer the following questions: Which goals does the project help achieve? How does the project help the agency achieve its goals? What are the best measures of the agency's goals? How should performance measures best be implemented? The chapters of Part II of this guide present the seven summary performance measures BJA has identified for the management and justification of its funding investments, together with guidance for implementing them. Part II also provides examples of project-specific measures for the grantee. Appended supplementary information