Analysis and Evaluation of City Data Operational Improvement Opportunities

Over the past 12 years, the Bloomberg administration has made great strides in adapting proven performance management techniques from the private sector to New York City governance. By developing a wide database of performance metrics and facilitating public access to this information, the city has been able to hold its multitude of city agencies accountable to a high level of service quality.

The Mayor’s Office of Operations tasked the Columbia University Capstone team with identifying the service areas that pose the greatest risk for requiring additional budget expenditure over the next two years and devising cost-saving strategies for mitigating those risks. The methodology employed was to isolate the performance indicators and 311 request categories that best represent demand for a particular city service, and to project future values of these indicators in order to determine where demand may be. The Capstone team ultimately conducted a case study with the Department of Parks and Recreation to analyze demand for forestry services and explore the associated cost-saving opportunities.