Maryland Managing for Results (MFR) is a strategic planning, performance measurement, and budgeting process that emphasizes use of resources to achieve measurable results, accountability, efficiency, and continuous improvement in State government programs.
Maryland Managing for Results started in 1996 when the Governor appointed an Interagency Steering Committee staffed by the Department of Budget and Management, to develop the Maryland MFR initiative. The Committee developed a strategic planning approach to management that is enhanced by program performance measurement. As expressed by a Steering Committee member, "If we have strategic planning without performance measurement, we know that we are going in the right direction, but do not know whether we are getting to where we want to go. If we have performance measurement without strategic planning, we know how fast we are going, but do not know whether we are going in the right direction." Maryland implemented a combined approach beginning in July 1997. MFR was implemented over a three year period throughout the Executive Branch of Maryland State government.
Managing for Results is the key component of Maryland's customer-focused management model which also encompasses budgeting, Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI), and Employee Performance Planning and Evaluation (PEP). The power and appeal of Managing for Results is that it integrates current management tools and techniques, provides direction for the future based on what is important for meeting customer needs, and leads government to do the right thing with the best use of resources. The challenge is to shift the management culture of State Government from a primary focus on processes to a focus on results and efficiencies as well. State leadership and employees are thinking differently about how they achieve results and measure their progress. State government monitors its progress in achieving desired results by developing and monitoring program and agency performance measures.
Managing for Results is linked to the State budget process and decision making. The Department of Budget and Management requires agencies to submit with their annual budget requests their overall agency missions, visions, key goals and performance measures, as well as the missions, goals, objectives and performance measures for every program in their agencies. The Office of Budget Analysis in the Department of Budget and Management reviews agency submissions based on established criteria, and considers the content of the submissions when making budgetary decisions. The Department of Budget and Management also monitors results in key performance areas to assess the progress that State government is making in addressing key policy issues and efficiently solving problems that confront the State.
The Governor's Interagency Steering Committee for MFR published an in-depth Guidebook on how to Manage for Results, and developed an extensive training program in consultation with the University of Baltimore. Currently the Steering Committee monitors the progress of agencies in applying the principles of MFR, assesses agency needs, develops enhancements to the initiative, and provides guidance to agencies about MFR.
In the fall of 2000, the Office of Legislative Audits in the Division of Legislative Services began auditing agency performance measures. You may view their website at www.ola.state.md.us.