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2 Method - How the Best Practice Indicators were Developed
Working Group
To ensure that the set of National Procurement BPIs would be useful to all types of organisation in different parts of the public sector, key stakeholders from across the public sector have been involved in their development.
The BPI working group was formed in July, with representatives from central government, local government, health, enterprise, and the HE/ FE sector. Many more representatives have commented on the draft proposals as the BPIs developed. Audit Scotland and Efficient Government were also represented on the group and were involved in the drafting process. Full membership is shown here.
The working group is very grateful to Mik Wisniewski, an academic expert in the field of Performance Indicators and Balanced Scorecards, for assisting the process of developing the BPIs and placing them on a balanced business scorecard.
While the group representatives took part to ensure that the final BPIs are useful and workable for their parent sector and organisation, it has been a core principle of the working group that decisions are taken jointly with a view to a collective national vision, and that challenges or changes in behaviour that may be required within sectors or organisations are not a reason in themselves for deviating from that national vision.
Process
The process of developing effective indicators requires two key questions to be asked:
- Which aspects of public sector procurement's performance do we wish to improve and should we measure?
- How can we best measure those aspects of performance?
The first question is one of focus: which aspects of procurement performance are of interest to managers and key stakeholders?
The second question is one of definition: what is a 'good' PI that will allow us to measure and report that aspect of performance effectively?
The working group followed a structured and systematic approach which identified Key Performance Areas for public sector procurement.
Firstly, the group agreed three high-level, strategic objectives for public procurement, the core deliverables expected of a procurement service.
Secondly, the group considered the key processes that have to be undertaken in order to achieve these objectives - these will be the core tasks or work that the service undertakes.
Finally, the group considered what resources the procurement service needs in order to be able to do the job properly - development or improvements in its organisational capacity.
Core Deliverables
What we want to achieve
Key Processes
What we need to do well as a procurement service in order to achieve these Deliverables
Organisational Capacity
What we need in order to be able to undertake these Processes well
Once the group had agreed the key performance areas to be improved within those three fields, it went on to consider how best to measure whether those aspirations were being met, and to agree the BPIs that will monitor progress towards those aspirations.
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