Budget Offer Questions + Guiding Commentary
In response to your feedback for a more simple, efficient BFO offer form, the FY18 budget offer focuses on five key questions.
The guiding commentary below is meant to help you think through your responses.
Please Note: There is no word limit on BFO offers. You are welcome to use as many words as you need to thoroughly answer the questions. Results Teams appreciate concise and clear offers.
This question asks you to clearly articulate the primary outcome(s) you seek to achieve. Everything else in this offer should link back to these outcome(s). Outcomes should tie to priority results areas, and be as specific and concrete as possible in how they will advance those priorities.
For a Results Team that does not know what outcomes you are seeking to produce, make sure you include details such as: who is impacted, how many people are impacted, the depth of the impact, etc., where applicable. It may help to think through, ‘In what way are you improving the lives of Chattanoogans?’ or ‘What do taxpayers get if they ‘buy’ your solution?’ Each year, we should be working to deliver the same outcomes at less cost or greater outcomes at the same cost.
If there are secondary outcomes you would like to explain, please feel free to do so while ensuring your prioritization is understandable to the reader.
This question asks how you are going to achieve the proposed outcomes. A plan should provide enough information for a citizen to gauge feasibility in terms of timing, bandwidth/capacity, staff, and organizational skillset. Activities and tactics should be linked together towards the common goal. A plan might include a calendar or timeline with major milestones and points of evaluation, with clearly delineated responsibility for different tasks. The plan can be dynamic, demonstrating both that contingencies have been thought through, as well as the capability to adapt within the plan.
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.
This question asks you to explain the problem or issue that your proposed solution seeks to address. An articulation of the issue or problem addressed sets the proposed solution in context. How does your solution fit into the larger work done on this issue? Are you addressing a real, urgent and important need? By clearly articulating the problem, you help the Results Team to understand the approach you have chosen and what impact it might have on Chattanoogans.
This question asks you to link your outcome and plan to a specific measure(s) and target(s). The Performance Management workshop series is available to help you get from goals to outcomes, decide on the right metrics, set targets by an appropriate frequency, and pull it all together. Measuring helps everyone stay on track during the course of the year, adjusting as necessary so that at the end of the year you know if you have succeeded in delivering the outcomes you set out to deliver. Targets throughout the year ensure that end of year results are not a surprise. Be specific about who is responsible for the results, what exactly is being measured, and how progress will be tracked. The outcome measure(s) you describe here should allow anyone to know whether or not you have succeeded - if you do not need more than one measure, you need not provide additional, less relevant measures.
For each outcome measure, you will be asked to provide historical actual results (as available for up to three years), your FY17 target and year end projection (as available), and your FY18 target. Additionally, you will be asked to set targets either monthly or quarterly to ensure progress throughout the year will achieve year end goals.
Measure/Metric:
Measurement Plan: Who is responsible for this metric? Do you currently have a way to track the measure? If not, what is your plan to create a tracking system for this measure?
FY13 Actual | FY14 Actual | FY15 Actual | FY16 Target | FY16 Projected | FY17 Target |
Q1 (or Month 1) | Q2 (or Month 2) | Q3 | Q4 |
This question asks for any additional comments you would like to share with the Results Team that would be relevant to their assessment. For example, if your offer includes personnel changes, please explain them here. You might also include information on: