Data doesn't tell whole story

Decades ago, test piloting aircraft gradually became less a matter of gut instinct of daring young men in flying machines and more of an engineering exercise. A well-known test pilot remarked, "You fly the big ones with a slide rule."

I thought of this anecdote while listening to a panel discussion down at the IRMCO conference earlier this week. Danny Werfel, the top career finance guy at the Office of Management and Budget, was talking about data - specifically, data agency managers must submit to OMB about their projects funded by the stimulus bill. Unprecedented amounts of data are needed, he reminded federal managers in the audience, to justify the spending and make sure it is transparent to the OMB, to the Accountability and Transparency Oversight Board, and ultimately to the public.

Quality of data is a challenge for agencies, Werfel added. Agencies are getting the message. Many of them, having accepted and understood the unprecedented reporting requirements of stimulus, are now asking about which XML schema to use in submitting their data.

For sure, the government has become... driven. Data.gov, the proposed project to put all conceivable government information in one web site, is a top priority for the Obama administration. The public is thought to be clamoring for data.

But Lesley Field had another angle on justifying stimulus spending. She reminded the gathered managers that there's another element of the pictures program managers create to justify and explain programs. That element is the narrative, the verbal description included in budget documents reviewed by OMB. She said inclusion of the narratives is as important as data and data quality to the cause of transparency.

Narratives - and this is me speaking - are what make projects real and understandable. And they should be written in a way to ensure that. Take a hypothetical bridge project. It can be described in data. Contract price? $1 million. Stimulus effect? Contract #xxxxxxxxx awarded to Jones & Sons Constructors. 7.5 full-time-equivalent construction positions at $15 per hour. And so forth.

But as a narrative, the project description can have impact and power. "This project replaces a 60-year-old bridge connecting a village of 30 people, over the Green River to Highway 19. Without this bridge the village has no access to job locations or the grocery store. The bridge has deteriorated to the point that an engineering analysis recommended immediate rehabilitation."

Ownership and management of the web site www.recovery.gov is moving from OMB staff to the recovery oversight board. Information now at the site presents only the broadest information on numbers of stimulus dollars by state or by agency. If the plan is to eventually have all stimulus-funded projects available, then the board should make sure the narratives are online along with the numbers.

Tom Temin is one of the co-hosts of The Federal Drive and consultant with 25 years of experience in journalism, specializing in technology and government. For 15 years he was editor in chief of Government Computer News. Reach him at ttemin@federalnewsradio.com.

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