Chapter 5 – Strategy Execution and Evaluation – Strategy
Strategy is a specific course of action chosen to achieve a specific outcome. Strategy in SEE is a course of action in which the agency focuses attention, aligns the organization, assesses options, and requests its budget — all making NOAA ready to best execute and evaluate programs. NOAA’s strategy is defined by the AGM, IPs, Corporate Portfolio Analysis (CPA), and budget submission.
Priorities and targets communicate how NOAA will balance the tradeoffs it faces and help the workforce understand where to focus its energies and what to put aside.
Each year, the NOAA Administrator uses the AGM to establish priorities and institute adjustments to strategy for the upcoming execution year, budgeting year, and five planning years. Within the long-term framework of the NGSP, the AGM modifi es NOAA’s strategy based upon changes in the external environment, performance results, prior year performance, and administration priorities. The AGM functions as the initial bookend for the planning process, while the CPA (discussed later in this chapter) provides its closure. Fiscal planning assumptions are provided to guide AOP and IP development. A statement of progress, relevant trends, and the priorities for the next fiscal year’s AOP are also incorporated.
The purpose of the IP is to:
»Explain how the NGSP will be accomplished;
»Establish the benchmark against which evaluation of success is measured;
»Capture the relationship among enterprise objectives necessary to accomplish NGSP goals and objectives; and
»Link strategy to budget formulation.
The seven-year time period covered in the IP includes the execution year, budget submission year, and five planning years. The IP is designed to be a tool created once and used many times to avoid the inefficiencies that resulted from starting the planning process “from scratch” each year.
Created by staff designated by the Champions, IPs will cover all major components contributing to the strategic objective managed by LOs and SOs, including assets, infrastructure, products, and services. Each IP will describe existing capabilities, performance projections, and cross-NOAA interdependencies. It provides justification for how inputs yield outputs and how outputs yield outcomes. By establishing the baseline for performance management, the IP sets the groundwork for budget formulation, DOC budget and performance reviews, and other internal evaluation while simultaneously off ering an assessment of gaps and potential solutions.
| Logic models help communicate connections by: |
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»Helping show the linkages among activities and targets »Communicating how milestone and activity targets are expected to contribute to more ambitious, innovation stimulating outcome-focused targets »Showing how regional and local targets roll up to headquarters targets |
The IP achieves its purpose through three major devices:
»Logic models (See Appendix D);
»The integration table; and
»The objective performance targets table.
Next, the major task in the developing the IP is to analyze the data collected in the logic model and integration and objective performance targets tables through analysis at the objective level and a limited cost analysis of specific critical priorities.
All planned activities listed in the IP should be executable within fiscal guidance set in the AGM. It is the responsibility of the LOs and SOs to closely align IPs with this fiscal guidance. Final IPs are scheduled for release at the end of December of the execution year.
The CPA is the process during which PPI, NOAA CFO, Champions, and NOAA leadership examine the entire collection of IPs from a corporate perspective, in light of the AGM and other relevant gaps and issues, across NOAA. To accomplish this analysis, IPs are reviewed from the perspective of:
»Accomplishments: what can be achieved over the planning period?
»Gaps and risks: what can not be achieved?
»Priority solutions: which gaps should close?
A corporate decision memo outlining leadership decisions on priority gaps and how to address the gaps will then inform budget formulation and execution of those priorities.
Drawing upon the AGM, IPs, CPA decision memo, budget narratives are developed and submitted by each LO. The NOAA Budget Office (NBO) analyzes budget requests, assesses options for addressing needs, and makes funding recommendations to the leadership. Such actions will help justify funding requests in budget submissions to the DOC, OMB, and Congress. This justification includes performance measures and descriptions, along with the Annual Performance Plan.
Budget formulation and justification are integral to NOAA’s budgeting process. The goal of budget formulation is to prepare, justify, and defend a financial plan for upcoming years that commits current and future resources in the manner most effi cient to accomplish NOAA’s goals and priorities consistent with NOAA’s strategic plan. The Budget Formulation and Analysis Division and NBO lead the formulation process, and collect input from LOs and SOs.
NOAA’s budget justification request to DOC is part of the continuous process of financial resource management and decisionmaking. Budget justification clearly documents program gaps, alternatives, and options as identified by NOAA leadership with respect to meeting strategic plan goals. The DOC Office of the Secretary is provided with a justifi cation that is comprehensive and fully conforms to the guidance set forth by OMB. Budget justification concludes with the submission of NOAA’s budget request to OMB and Congress.
The President submits a proposed budget to Congress each February. This budget is a comprehensive review of Federal revenues and spending and a start of extensive interaction with Congress. The budget resolution is a central part of the budget process in Congress. Congress considers the recommendations using the information included in the budget as it draft s and passes laws that affect spending and revenue. Through this process the government determines how much money to spend, what to spend it on, and how to raise the money it has decided to spend. The budgeting process concludes with congressional appropriation signed by the President.
