Progress in performance measurement.(Editorial)

Performance measurement has moved beyond "an emerging practice" to become an expected component of an effective governmental resource management system. As the use of performance measurement has spread, governments have been creative in designing systems that suit their unique management environments and in measuring results that are most important to their local constituencies. Most significantly, governments have demonstrated that performance measurement is most effective when applied within a comprehensive planning-budgeting-evaluation context.

Three articles in this issue illustrate how performance measurement is being used as a tool for managing results. In "Budgeting for Outcomes: Delivering Results Citizens Value at a Price They Are Willing to Pay," Peter Hutchinson and David Osborne propose a dramatic shift from traditional budgeting, one that begins with funding outcomes, then "purchasing" activities that have the most promise for achieving those outcomes. Performance measurement is an essential part of this ...