Cascade™ Performance Based Budgeting Software is the only integrated
strategic planning and performance budgeting software designed specifically to
meet the unique needs of government agencies, complete with expert, in-depth
“how-to” guidance.
The various templates and underlying functionality of Cascade™ is identical
in either version, and the only difference is in some aspects of the embedded
guidance.
To see a video presentation summarizing some of the key features of Cascade™,
click on one of these links, depending on your Internet connection speed.
The Cascade™ federal government version is the only strategic planning and
performance budgeting software designed specifically for federal agencies.
What Federal Agencies
Are Trying to Do |
Challenges That Many
Agencies Face |
The CASCADE™ Approach
|
Advantages of CASCADE™
|
|
Implement a comprehensive performance management system that enables
the organization to be:
- results-oriented
- well-managed
- high-performing
|
Incomplete understanding of what a
performance management system is and no overall framework for its
development and implementation |
Provides a structured process for
clearly linking every activity of every program and support function to
the annual and long-term goals of the agency |
Offers the most effective solution
ever designed for developing the framework for a comprehensive,
agency-wide performance management system |
| Difficulty in extending agency-wide
strategic planning and performance budgeting to every organizational
sub-unit in every location around the country |
Standardized templates for strategic planning & performance budgeting
for use at all levels of the agency
Templates are cascaded down from superior to subordinates, throughout
the entire agency, reaching every manager in every sub-unit and location
|
Provides a powerful tool for involving every manager at every level
and in every location in the agency-wide strategic planning and
performance budgeting processes
Ensures that every manager in the agency has goals and strategies
that directly link to and explicitly support the goals of the entire
organization
|
| Agency support functions do not
directly link to and explicitly support achievement of the agency's
programmatic goals |
Emphasis is given to agency support
functions as well as programmatic operations, and the interrelationship
between the two is documented |
Identifies for each support function
the specific assistance they should provide to each individual manager
in support of program goals, to ensure that plans are coordinated |
|
Develop strategic plans that meet the specific requirements of -
and which are effective in guiding the agency
Develop annual performance plans that meet the specific requirements
of -
and which help justify budget requests
Achieve high scores for each program on the PART evaluations
Fully integrate PMA compliance into the strategic planning and
performance budgeting processes
|
Many managers do not have a good understanding of all the
requirements of -
- GPRA
- OMB Circular A-11
- the PART
- the PMA
that are relevant to strategic planning and performance budgeting
Uncertain ability to achieve and document compliance with key
performance-related requirements of the PART and the PMA
|
Detailed guidance for every item on the template, supporting
compliance with GPRA, OMB A-11, the PART & the PMA
Guidance for ensuring that the management challenges identified by
GAO and the OIG are addressed in the strategic plans and performance
budgets
|
Guides every manager in developing goals and strategies for their own
areas of responsibility that fully support agency compliance with the
requirements of -
- GPRA
- OMB Circular A-11
- the PART
- the PMA
while addressing efforts to resolve important management challenges
|
| Develop performance budgets that
effectively achieve Budget & Performance Integration |
Inability to associate program costs with program results in a way
that is meaningful for -
- policy formulation
- budget justification
- program management
Weak or non-existent linkage of long-term and annual goals to
day-to-day activities
|
Higher-level CASCADE™ performance
budgeting templates link to lower-level templates that summarize
activity-based costing data, showing how dollars fund activities that
generate outputs that support outcomes |
Links every day-to-day program
activity, and its associated costs, to the appropriate long-term and
annual goals of the agency |
| Develop strategic and
performance plans that strike the right balance between being
comprehensive and specific enough to be meaningful and informative, yet
focused and succinct enough to be readable and useful |
Agency-wide strategic and performance
plans are often so general in their descriptions, in order to avoid
becoming overly massive documents, that they frequently lack sufficient
details about the who, what, and why of actions that are planned |
All of the documents generated by completing the CASCADE™ templates,
when taken together, create two large online data bases that cover the
entire agency - an in-depth strategic plan & an in-depth performance
budget
Goal map provided of all goals and measures in the entire agency,
with links to the relevant CASCADE™ planning documents
|
Allows sufficiently
comprehensive agency-wide plans to be developed that are both specific
and succinct - i.e., summary documents may be individually created, but
with linkages to a greater level of detail in the large online data
bases for the strategic plan and the performance budget, and references
and linkages to other planning documents of the agency |
| Too many stand-alone plans (both in
program areas and support functions) and other supporting documents that
are not directly linked to the agency's overall strategic plan and
performance budget |
Offers optional inclusion of a
powerful document management tool (Edge™) for linking the strategic plan
and the performance budget to a wide range of planning and supporting
documentation of the agency and its sub-units |
| Include program performance as an
important element in evaluating managers and enabling the development of
a pay-for-performance system |
Little managerial accountability for
program performance in a manner that could support an effective
pay-for-performance system |
Each CASCADE™ template indicates the
individual manager responsible for its goals and strategies |
Provides a solid basis for developing
a pay-for-performance system on a foundation of meaningful, measurable
goals for every manager that directly support the objectives of the
entire organization |
CASCADE™ Performance Based Budgeting Software
