Functional Statements > Federal Student Aid

D. Performance Management

The Performance Management in Federal Student Aid is responsible for providing best in business service for all systems integration, reengineering and re-platforming projects; efficient and economic acquisition of products and services; contract performance measures and measurement; performance plan monitoring. To accomplish this mission, CPO has four principal components:

• Project Management and Oversight Group
• Federal Student Aid Acquisitions Group
• Strategic Planning and Reporting Group
• Enterprise Change Management Group
• Information Management Group

Project Management & Oversight Group

Project Management and Oversight is responsible for promoting the development and diffusion of a project management culture throughout Federal Student Aid.  The group advises on systems integration strategy and annual strategic and tactical planning for Federal Student Aid initiatives and is responsible for:

• Developing and implementing project management standards (based on the Project Management Body of Knowledge, Third Edition) that are integrated with other Federal Student Aid processes;
• Identifying training, in collaboration with Federal Student Aid University, to develop new project managers and support existing project managers’ professional development;
• Reporting on the status of projects to enable informed decisions and sound project management;
• Managing the project management process across Federal Student Aid;
• Project management consulting;
• Ensuring coordination and integration across all projects; and
• Analyzing critical dependencies across projects.

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Federal Student Aid Acquisitions Group

Federal Student Aid Acquisitions is responsible for ensuring the efficient and economic acquisition of products and services for Federal Student Aid while reducing cost and maintaining compliance with applicable laws, regulations, and Executive Orders.  These responsibilities include the following functions: Knowledge Management and Controls; Strategic Initiatives, Mission Procurement; and Business Procurement.

Mission Procurement Division
Responsibilities for the contracting process include:

• Focused on procurements specific to the delivery of Financial Aid
• Performing tactical market research;
• Supporting the formulation of solicitations;
• Price analysis for solicitations, modifications and orders;
• Issuing solicitations;
• Selecting contractors;
• Negotiating and awarding contracts;
• Administering and managing the contracts.
• Acquisition planning as defined in Part 7 of the Federal Acquisition Regulations; and
• Performing Strategic Market Research and Spend Analysis.

Knowledge Management and Controls Division
Responsibilities, as an independent monitor of performance, include:

• Monitoring to ensure that Federal Student Aid’s acquisition practices are consistent with applicable procurement laws and regulations and the Department Chief Acquisition Officer’s policies, practices and directives;
• Maintaining, analyzing, and reporting on operational and performance data for Federal Student Aid acquisitions; and
• Managing Government Furnished Property at the enterprise level

Business Procurement Division
Responsibilities for the contracting process include:

• Focused on procurements associated with Federal Student Aid operations:
• Performing tactical market research;
• Supporting the formulation of solicitations;
• Price analysis for solicitations, modifications and orders;
• Issuing solicitations;
• Selecting contractors;
• Negotiating and awarding contracts;
• Administering and managing the contracts.
• Acquisition planning as defined in Part 7 of the Federal Acquisition Regulations;
• Providing timely and efficient acquisition of supplies and services within the simplified acquisition threshold ($100,000) and commercial items ($5,000,000); and
• Coordinating, executing, and administering Interagency Agreements.

Strategic Initiatives Division
Responsibilities include:

• Preparing internal policies, procedures, and practices to ensure that Federal Student Aid’s acquisition practices are consistent with applicable procurement laws and regulations and the Department Chief Acquisition Officer’s policies, practices and directives; and
• Monitoring that Federal Student Aid’s acquisition personnel are properly trained:
• Establishing training and development strategies and managing the acquisition career development program.
• Managing acquisition career succession through initiatives to develop an acquisition workforce of the future.

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Strategic Planning & Reporting Group

Strategic Planning and Reporting provides strategic measurement initiatives and data in order to track program and organizational performance. Staff will leverage internal administrative assistance as well as a production team to focus efforts on strategic value-adding tasks and activities and performs the following functions:

• Developing, executing, and continually improving the strategic planning process so that the organization has a clear and consistent approach to improving performance. The outputs of this process include an annually updated Five Year Performance Plan as well as the associated annual plans;
• Developing and maintaining the assessment of key Federal Student Aid metrics;
• Tracking and measuring Management Council and/or Chief Operating Officer assigned initiatives (e.g., Annual Performance Plan).  Communicating results of annual plans and Management Council initiatives on a bi-weekly, quarterly, and annual basis;
• Implementing measurement processes to ensure the necessary and needed performance information is available, including employee surveys, customer surveys, and performance metrics;
• Providing support to the organization concerning performance reporting and performance measures mandated by, e.g., the Office of Management and Budget; and
• Performing data analysis and reporting (e.g., program data and Congressionally mandated reporting).

Enterprise Change Management Group

Enterprise Change Management provides leadership and integrated oversight for all FSA strategic initiatives execution, governance, quality assurance, Project Management standards and professional development, along with a strategic measurement initiatives and data in order to track program and organizational performance.

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Information Management Group

Information Management Group is responsible for the creation, maintenance and quality of all FSA Enterprise Data Standards for key customer and program reference data along with enforcement of data acquisition, management and distribution methods, procedures and policies across FSA. This group chairs the Information Management Council, serving as the business lead for FSA’s core customer and program data repository.

Partner with FSA’s Technology Data Architecture to ensure that FSA’s global data architecture supports its long-term business strategy.  Partner with FSA system owners and developers to eliminate barriers (technical and organizational) to effective interface of customer and program reference data across FSA systems. Increase the understanding and awareness of data governance across key leaders in FSA. Ensure the development of rigorous business cases for strategic data initiatives that yield benefits to cross-functional FSA business units and escalate deviation from non-strategic goals

Develop, implement and maintain an integrated FSA reference data strategy to support FSA wide processes, such as customer segmentation, risk aggregation, business productivity, and financial reporting.  The group ensures that FSA effectively manages the following data types to provide information for optimal decision making:

• Customer Data
• Transactional Data
• Program Data
• Financial Data
• Operational Data

Serve as FSA business liaison for Department data projects to ensure that FSA partners effectively to share data where appropriate across the Department of Education. Ensure appropriate sharing of all data with regards compliance requirements. Optimize use of 3rd party vendor data across the platform to enhance internal and external data flow. Implement metrics and tracking to chart progress in implementing data standards. Work closely with FSA Technology, Risk Management, Operations, Compliance, Customer Experience and Finance groups in the development and deployment of FSA data strategies.

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