Maximizing Knowledge for Program Evaluation: Critical Issues and Practical Challenges of ICT Strategies

Policy makers and public managers want and need to know how well government programs perform, but few have the information to accurately and continuously evaluate them. Performance measurement and performance-based decisions can be improved by more sophisticated information systems designed to support analysis and decision making. However, such systems demand close and continuing involvement of program staff, attention to programmatic context, and much better understanding of business processes and the data they generate. Through the example of the prototype Homeless Information Management System, this paper highlights how challenging these issues are and how attention to them can lead to useful and usable performance analysis and evaluation systems.