Defining Commonly-Used Outcomes Terms

Many of the terms Accountability and Customer Services use to measure whether department programs and services are working may be unfamiliar to the general public. The most commonly-used terms are defined below. By using standard definitions, we are better able to ensure that program outcomes are reported in a uniform way.

Outcome: The goal we seek as a community, a condition of well-being.

Indicator: Measure of community well-being.

Key result: The specific goal/contribution of a program to help meet the community-wide outcome.

Program measures: The effectiveness of the program for those that it serves.

Family of Measures: A set of measures used to assess program performance and link outcomes to department budget items. If you have Excel software on your PC, we hope to soon be able to link directly to our performance measures. In the meantime, please call 240-777-1098 if you would like to have copies of our performance measures sent to you.

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