Developing meaningful outcome-oriented performance goals and
collecting performance data to measure achievement of these goals is a
major challenge for many federal agencies.[Footnote 27] Performance
measurement tends to focus on regularly collected data available on
direct products and services provided by a program, such as the number
of staff trained to carry out an activity. In cases where outcomes are
not quickly achieved or readily observed, such as assessing the impact
a training program has on achieving an agency's goals, performance
measurement is more complex.[Footnote 28]