The lowest grade was 6.5. Other grades ranged from 60 to 11. O ur criteria are based on the Results Act itself, the Act's legislative history, OMB Circular A-11 Part 2, and a May 1997 GAO review guide for strategic plans. Treatment of crosscutting functions . T he patterns from our grades should provide a clear path for agencies and OMB to follow in converting the current drafts into credible and useful strategic plans for submission on September 30.
Much work remains to be done .
The actual grades illustrate starkly how far agencies are from the ideal and how much work remains to be done. Even those agency plans with the highest grades leave much room for improvement between now and September 30. Many plans are missing statutory elements and fall short of minimal quality standards . The extent to which the draft plans fail to address statutorily-required elements is striking. The Labor Department's plan is missing 5 of the 6 required elements.