Scoring Criteria

Guiding Assessment Questions

Impact on Chattanooga

To what extent does this improve the lives of Chattanooga residents?

Advances Priority Results Area

To what extent will this advance City priorities? (Smarter Students, Stronger Families; Safer Streets; High Performing Government; Growing Economy; Stronger Neighborhoods)

Implementation Plan

Does the proposed implementation plan provide a clear, feasible roadmap to achieve your outcome goals?

Measures

Do you have the measures in place to know if you are achieving the proposed outcomes?

Approach

Does the offer choose the optimal route to achieve the outcomes? (Demonstrated with benchmarks, proven methods, partner collaborations, and with clarity on how your solution fits into the larger work on the issue being addressed)

Impact on Chattanooga

To what extent does this improve the lives of Chattanooga residents?

For assessment, the Results Team will balance the breadth and depth of the impact, the need of those impacted, the number impacted, the equity of impact distribution (looking at multiple offers together), the scale of the impact, and the sustainability of the change (does this address the symptoms or create lasting change by addressing the root cause).

A high scoring offer on ‘Impact on Chattanooga’ will provide the information allowing the Results Team to assess the issues above (and bulleted below), and will, in their determination, improve the lives of Chattanooga residents.

• clearly articulates the broad impact or deep impact
• it addresses a problem that needs to be solved
• equity in those it serves
• sustainability of the change - is it one time, or investment in long haul

Advances Priority Results Area

To what extent will this advance City priorities? (Smarter Students, Stronger Families; Safer Streets; High Performing Government; Growing Economy; Stronger Neighborhoods)

The Administration of Mayor Andy Berke focuses on five Priority Results Areas - Smarter Students, Stronger Families; Safer Streets; High Performing Government; Growing Economy; Stronger Neighborhoods. A high scoring offer by this criteria will tie to an articulated Results Area and clearly advance those goals. Many initiatives may positively impact Chattanooga residents, and our budget tries to focus that impact on five key priorities so that, collectively, we can ‘move the needle’ towards achieving our goals.

Implementation Plan

Does the proposed implementation plan provide a clear, feasible roadmap to achieve your outcome goals?

A high scoring plan provides a clear, feasible roadmap to achieve your outcome goals. An offer with a  high score on the Implementation Plan criteria might include:

• Calendar that shows when you’ll apply tactics / activities to reach your goals. The timeline should be achievable and demonstrate that your organization has thought through the stages of a one year plan.
• Links the various tactics / activities that make up your one year plan, with an explanation of what effect you expect those tactics to have on outputs tied to progress toward goals. Budgeting for Outcomes is about tying dollars and activities towards driving outcomes. Everything in your plan should push towards the articulated outcomes.
• Milestones, key benchmarks in the work that help mark progress
• Devoted time to debriefing and evaluating progress
• Performance management questions you expect to ask in regular meetings
• Has the staff (bandwidth) and skills to implement
• Is realistic and feasible
• Clearly articulates who owns responsibilities
• Plan fits into your existing plan
• You have the demonstrated capability to adapt this plan and be dynamic in the case of change with contingencies thought through
• Appropriate lead time (e.g. for hiring, purchasing, promotion, etc.)
• For existing organizations and continued initiatives, this is an opportunity to think through and explain your yearly cycle, with a focus on how you’ll be driving improvement.
• For expanding organizations and new initiatives, this is an opportunity to think through and explain how the new fits in with what exists now.

Measures

Do you have the measures in place to know if you are achieving the proposed outcomes?

Well developed performance measures and targets.will help you to know if you are on track to achieve your desired outcomes. An offer that has solid measures include the following:

• Clearly identified measure(s)
• The right number of measures (too few and you may be missing key measures of performance, too many and the measures lose their importance and become too cumbersome to use)
• Measures are appropriately related to desired BFO outcome(s)
• Well developed proxy measures, when measuring outcomes is not possible
• A well thought out measurement plan (person responsible for tracking and reporting on the measure, existing process in place for tracking the measure or a clear plan on how the tracking process will be developed in time for the start of the new fiscal year)
• Appropriate performance measure targets (based on internal/external benchmarks, review of past data, )
• Realistic quarterly or monthly targets for the coming fiscal year

Approach

Does the offer choose the optimal route to achieve the outcomes? (Demonstrated with benchmarks, proven methods, partner collaborations, and with clarity on how your solution fits into the larger work on the issue being addressed)

There are many ways to achieve the same goal...and even more ways to try to achieve the same goal but not actually achieve that goal. With this Scoring Criteria, a Results Team is judging whether or not you chose the optimal route to achieve your proposed outcomes. A high score on ‘Approach’ might include the following:

• Uses proven methods.
• Fits into the larger work being done in the community to address this issue. An offer demonstrates awareness of what others are doing and thoughtfully incorporates the larger picture.
• Leverages partnerships to drive collective impact.
• Research supported methods.
• Among other options, you chose the best.
• Demonstrates the most efficient allocation of resources.