Due to the nature of this program, it is important to track long-term quality, cost, and delivery schedule goals. The Census Bureau has embarked on a multi-year research and testing program focused on major innovations to the design of the census and oriented around major cost drivers.

Due to the cyclical nature of these programs, it is important to track annual key activities that support the programs. The internal activities that are tracked are those considered to be the most important in meeting the long-term goals of the cyclical census programs.

The Commerce Data Governance Board (CDGB) has working groups that develop and create meta data for performance metrics that that will be used by multiple or all bureaus. Each group has an action plan with due dates. This measure reports the percent of the actions in these plans that are on schedule within one quarter of the original due date.

Ensuring that data products are released on schedule is essential. OMB Statistical Directive Number 3 requires that the data for the principal economic indicators be released within prescribed time periods.

The Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act of 2018 (“Evidence Act”) requires that agency Evaluation Officers coordinate the development of an Annual Evaluation Plan that is published concurrent with the agency Annual Performance Plan. The Annual Evaluation Plan describes “significant” evaluations and related information for the subsequent fiscal year. This measure is the percent of projects in Annual Evaluation Plans that support the current Strategic Plan and Learning Agenda that are on schedule.

The denominator is the total number of projects in the Annual Plans from the start of the 5-year Strategic Planning cycle up to and including the year in progress. The numerator is the numerator of those projects that are on schedule. The calculation provides the percent of the projects that are on track.

The American Community Survey (ACS) includes the release of detailed social, economic, and housing data. The ACS replaced the Decennial Census’ long form in 2005. People increasingly depend on the most current Census Bureau population and income data to made decision on business locations and investments in real estate. Communities rely on this data to measure the demand for housing, predict future needs, and identify trends.

Ensuring that data products are released on schedule is essential.

This element/indicator measures the Department’s progress in managing risk through reducing the use of high-risk contracting authorities. High-risk contracting authorities, such as noncompetitive contracting, cost-reimbursement contracts, and time-and materials and labor-hour contracts, pose special risks of overspending. The Department’s high-risk contracting percentage for the base year (FY2009) was 53.4%, and OMB directed that we maintain a 10% reduction from the FY 2009 based on the share of dollars obligated under new contract actions that use high-risk contracting authorities for future FYs. The Department's target is 46.9%, which is a 10% reduction from the FY 2009 base. The target is depicted as a percentage. A percentage equal to or lower than 46.9% is favorable. Federal Procurement Data System (FPDS) is the data source that is used for information pertaining to high-risk contracting activities and is the single source for U.S. government-wide procurement data.

Many improvements to Commerce operations and programs come through recommendations made in various OIG work products. A measure of OIG’s effectiveness is the extent to which it offers useful, practical recommendations for improvements. A measure of the usefulness and practicality of OIG’s recommendations is the extent to which they are accepted by Commerce management.

This performance measure tracks BEA’s ability to reliably estimate its most important statistic, gross domestic product (GDP). This measure is a composite index of six indicators of reliability, applied using three-year rolling averages to develop a single measure of the reliability of the GDP statistics.