From: US GAO | WatchBlog
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Although a 2010 federal law calls for the creation of a comprehensive inventory of all federal programs, in 2014 we found that the initial effort to develop one wasn’t useful because the information included in it was inconsistent and not comparable.
A useful inventory of federal programs could help better highlight instances of wasteful redundancy, and would include information about program budgets and performance. It could also include information about program activities, the services they provide, and the beneficiaries they serve.
So how might federal agencies get there?
Information architecture may help
We found that the principles and practices of information architecture—a discipline focused on how information is organized, structured, and presented—could be used to develop a transparent and accessible inventory of federal programs. Using a systematic approach would create an inventory that was consistent across agencies and programs, addressing some of the limitations we found in the initial effort.
Using an information architecture approach to develop a federal program inventory would provide the ability to combine, sort, and filter information across multiple types of program information. The figure below illustrates how this information could be used to identify programs that provide similar services—in this case, early learning and child care services.
(excerpted from GAO-17-739)
We identified initial actions the Office of Management and Budget and other federal agencies could take to develop such an inventory based on the principles and practices of information architecture.
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