Cascade™ Performance Based Budgeting Software is the only integrated strategic planning and performance budgeting software designed specifically to meet the unique needs of government agencies, complete with expert, in-depth “how-to” guidance.
The various templates and underlying functionality of Cascade™ is identical in either version, and the only difference is in some aspects of the embedded guidance.
To see a video presentation summarizing some of the key features of Cascade™, click on one of these links, depending on your Internet connection speed.
The Cascade™ federal government version is the only strategic planning and performance budgeting software designed specifically for federal agencies.
What Federal Agencies
Are Trying to Do
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Challenges That Many Agencies Face
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The CASCADE™ Approach
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Advantages of CASCADE™
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Implement a comprehensive performance management system that enables the organization to be:
- results-oriented
- well-managed
- high-performing
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Incomplete understanding of what a performance management system is and no overall framework for its development and implementation |
Provides a structured process for clearly linking every activity of every program and support function to the annual and long-term goals of the agency |
Offers the most effective solution ever designed for developing the framework for a comprehensive, agency-wide performance management system |
| Difficulty in extending agency-wide strategic planning and performance budgeting to every organizational sub-unit in every location around the country |
Standardized templates for strategic planning & performance budgeting for use at all levels of the agency
Templates are cascaded down from superior to subordinates, throughout the entire agency, reaching every manager in every sub-unit and location
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Provides a powerful tool for involving every manager at every level and in every location in the agency-wide strategic planning and performance budgeting processes
Ensures that every manager in the agency has goals and strategies that directly link to and explicitly support the goals of the entire organization
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| Agency support functions do not directly link to and explicitly support achievement of the agency's programmatic goals |
Emphasis is given to agency support functions as well as programmatic operations, and the interrelationship between the two is documented |
Identifies for each support function the specific assistance they should provide to each individual manager in support of program goals, to ensure that plans are coordinated |
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Develop strategic plans that meet the specific requirements of -
and which are effective in guiding the agency
Develop annual performance plans that meet the specific requirements of -
and which help justify budget requests
Achieve high scores for each program on the PART evaluations
Fully integrate PMA compliance into the strategic planning and performance budgeting processes
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Many managers do not have a good understanding of all the requirements of -
- GPRA
- OMB Circular A-11
- the PART
- the PMA
that are relevant to strategic planning and performance budgeting
Uncertain ability to achieve and document compliance with key performance-related requirements of the PART and the PMA
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Detailed guidance for every item on the template, supporting compliance with GPRA, OMB A-11, the PART & the PMA
Guidance for ensuring that the management challenges identified by GAO and the OIG are addressed in the strategic plans and performance budgets
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Guides every manager in developing goals and strategies for their own areas of responsibility that fully support agency compliance with the requirements of -
- GPRA
- OMB Circular A-11
- the PART
- the PMA
while addressing efforts to resolve important management challenges
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| Develop performance budgets that effectively achieve Budget & Performance Integration |
Inability to associate program costs with program results in a way that is meaningful for -
- policy formulation
- budget justification
- program management
Weak or non-existent linkage of long-term and annual goals to day-to-day activities
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Higher-level CASCADE™ performance budgeting templates link to lower-level templates that summarize activity-based costing data, showing how dollars fund activities that generate outputs that support outcomes |
Links every day-to-day program activity, and its associated costs, to the appropriate long-term and annual goals of the agency |
| Develop strategic and performance plans that strike the right balance between being comprehensive and specific enough to be meaningful and informative, yet focused and succinct enough to be readable and useful |
Agency-wide strategic and performance plans are often so general in their descriptions, in order to avoid becoming overly massive documents, that they frequently lack sufficient details about the who, what, and why of actions that are planned |
All of the documents generated by completing the CASCADE™ templates, when taken together, create two large online data bases that cover the entire agency - an in-depth strategic plan & an in-depth performance budget
Goal map provided of all goals and measures in the entire agency, with links to the relevant CASCADE™ planning documents
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Allows sufficiently comprehensive agency-wide plans to be developed that are both specific and succinct - i.e., summary documents may be individually created, but with linkages to a greater level of detail in the large online data bases for the strategic plan and the performance budget, and references and linkages to other planning documents of the agency |
| Too many stand-alone plans (both in program areas and support functions) and other supporting documents that are not directly linked to the agency's overall strategic plan and performance budget |
Offers optional inclusion of a powerful document management tool (Edge™) for linking the strategic plan and the performance budget to a wide range of planning and supporting documentation of the agency and its sub-units |
| Include program performance as an important element in evaluating managers and enabling the development of a pay-for-performance system |
Little managerial accountability for program performance in a manner that could support an effective pay-for-performance system |
Each CASCADE™ template indicates the individual manager responsible for its goals and strategies |
Provides a solid basis for developing a pay-for-performance system on a foundation of meaningful, measurable goals for every manager that directly support the objectives of the entire organization |
