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PittMAPS | Managing for Results | Current MFR's | MFR Archive | Contact PittMAPS
Pittsburgh’s Management
and Performance System (PittMAPS)
Triggers How
City Departments Are
Developing Operational Performance Targets
PittMAPS Background
Pittsburgh's Management & Performance System (PittMAPS) is all about accountability and increasing efficiencies in government, and doing more with less. The Mayor sets his Initiatives and Baseline Goals in meetings with his staff and the leaders of departments. In August 2007, the Ravenstahl administration began using smart practices to measure performance, demand accountability, and improve City services within a strategic vision.
Seventeen City departments submit monthly performance control values to PittMAPS as indicators consistent with their day-to-day operations. For example, Public Works might report "the number of graffiti abatements on public and private property" while Building Inspection reports "the number of field inspections for code enforcement". Some departments have ten performance control indicators, some have 75.
Developing Operational Performance Targets
During 2009, PittMAPS and department leaders are selecting a few
Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) that can be used to impact achieving the Mayor’s Initiatives and Baseline Goals. Each of these KPI’s will have a specific target goal value determined and be mapped/aligned back to the Mayor’s Initiatives.
Returning to the above two examples:
- Public Works might support the Mayoral Initiative & Baseline Goal “Safe and Clean Neighborhoods – Reduce the environment for crime” by determining a target value it can control.
- “Increasing the number of graffiti abatements on public and private property by 200% to 140 per month”.
- Building Inspection might support the Mayoral Initiative & Baseline Goal “Safe and Clean Neighborhoods – Strengthen neighborhoods” by determining that it is not ready to set a target value it can control.
- “The number of field inspections for code enforcement will continue to be tracked to determine a baseline performance expectation and its contribution to strengthening neighborhoods.”
In addition to looking for monthly performance control values to determine an operational performance target for the few KPI’s, PittMAPS will be working with department leaders to map/align each indicator with one of the following goals.
Mayoral Initiatives and Baseline Goals:
- Safe and Clean Neighborhoods
- Increase civic involvement and transparency
- Reduce the environment for crime
- Strengthen neighborhoods
- Economic Engine Development
- Nurture health care and education business sectors
- Connect people to jobs and jobs to people
- Enhance children's educational opportunities
- Promote diverse workforce and suppliers
- Continue the development along the rivers
- Financially Sound
- Solve legacy costs crises
- Determine actual costs of delivering services in a competitive manner
- Governing Efficiently and Operating "Green"
- Enhance government services by measuring performance
- Deploy and utilize the best technology
- Collaborate with other local governments and agencies
- Accelerate "greening" the City
Determining how KPI’s and Operational Performance Targets meaningfully link to the Mayor’s Strategic Initiatives is not a trivial process. The following five sets of questions are discussion points to update and refine PittMAPS, KPI’s, and specific departmental targets.
- 1. What are the department’s core mission and values? What are the most important things our department is trying to do?
- 2. What internal and external opportunities and threats to that mission exist? What strengths and weaknesses do we have to meet those opportunities and threats?
- 3. What specifically will be accomplished during the next year? What cause-and-effect operational performance measurement aligns with a department goal?
- 4. How does the department achieve those measurement goals? What outcomes or actions would produce the desired outcomes? What outcomes or actions would precede that? What are the cause-and-effect relationships among components to achieve the goals?
- 5. How do budget allocations, staffing levels, and personnel skills impact or connect with these performance measures? With the focus on performance measurement, what changes in budget, staff, and personnel are required to meet the initiative and department goals?
PittMAPS is not a short-term fix for anything! It is an ongoing process to use facts and data so leaders will know sooner where to do what. PittMAPS is a multi-year initiative focusing on entering information once, by both internal City employees and external customers, so that data goes everywhere. PittMAPS will be finding key performance indicators that measure those goals so the leaders of departments can quickly:
- Report
- Can we see underlying operational costs and results to understand why?
- Manage & Control
- How well aligned are departmental resources and day-to-day operations with the Mayor's performance initiatives?
- Improve
- How efficient and productive? Can we optimize?
Where? Why?
Managing for Results Reports (MFR's)
Managing for Results (MFR) reports communicating information about month-to-month operating results and performance in a consistent manner have been published since late 2007. The MFR reports provide some selective comparisons of monthly raw PittMAPS information. In several months, the MFR information will come directly from day-to-day operating department information, and will support analysis with maps by neighborhood, ward, etc.
Each MFR should describe the goal, the performance indicator, and the rationale for the measurement. However, if Pittsburghers do not call 311, or 911 (which can be done without giving your name), then the management decisions being made might be missing valid information from your neighborhood. Accountability goes both ways – from the Mayor out to the customers of Pittsburgh, and from the customers in to the Mayor.
Relationship Between Operational Targets and Budget Planning
This process of connecting Mayoral Initiatives and goals with departmental targets is, at present, without a clear “link” to money and the annual budgeting process. There is not any expectation or capability within the existing PeopleSoft accounting system of a 1:1 relationship between a budget line item and an operational performance target. Tying performance targets to budget line items is the eventual goal within a few years. The figure below outlines two different views to understanding how $914,500 might be spent for Permit Processing. Aligning operational targets with an activity based accounting (right column) philosophy is straightforward; however with a chart-of-accounts (left column) approach it is more obtuse.
Current MFR's - 2009 Q4
The following PittMAPS Managing for Results reports are available in PDF format (download viewer). 
311 Zone Neighborhoods ( List )
Contact PittMAPS
If you have any suggestions to make any of these reports easier to read and understand, please contact the PittMAPS Manager directly at chuck.half@city.pittsburgh.pa.us or 412.255.0819.
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