Focus Group 1 Discussion 3/6 by Keefe Low

#1 Uncovering the budgeting experience

keefe868 — 2024-05-29 06:34:05 UTC

Verbal sharing: describe a typical workday as a budgeting officer (3min)
Fill a board in: Based on your experiences working with junior budgeting officers, what do you think they excel in ?What are some points for improvement ? (7min + 5min sharing)

Example board

keefe868 — 2024-05-29 06:34:05 UTC

They excel in:

Timely submission of work
Good stakeholder management

Points for improvement:

Proficiency in Workday
Lack of business acumen and sectorial awareness

#2 What does a good budgeting officer look like ?

keefe868 — 2024-05-29 06:34:05 UTC

Imagine an exemplary budgeting officer; how will he/she look like ? Describe the officer in terms of knowledge, skills, attitude and other characteristics

#3 Interventions (15min)

keefe868 — 2024-05-29 06:34:05 UTC

What are some interventions (existing or otherwise) that can equip budget officers with the key knowledge and skills necessary for their role ?

Ice-breaker activity

keefe868 — 2024-05-29 06:34:05 UTC

What is one word of phrase that best describes the state of budgeting in your agency? Fill in the boards below! (double-click boards of the same color to fill them in)

Board 1

keefe868 — 2024-05-29 06:34:05 UTC

Writing skills

Communication & presentation

How to manage difficult stakeholders & situations

Create a community/ platform that serves to share knowledge and information?

Mentoring for newer/ younger officers?

MOF/AGD/CSC Brown bag sessions for new policies?

Board 2

keefe868 — 2024-05-29 06:34:05 UTC

Short immersion into entity's line divisions may be useful [Just for exposure]

Not sure how the existing courses are designed but having a couple of real-life case studies (with sensitive details redacted) would be useful

Think a good part of learning is still OJT

Board 3

keefe868 — 2024-05-29 06:34:05 UTC

Weekly meetings to share amongst team mates
Putting in place SOPs detail enough for new joiners to understand operations
Brown bag sessions on budgeting process with the lines which will streamline the Finance tasks

Board 4

keefe868 — 2024-05-29 06:34:05 UTC

Specialised contract staff to do tasks like dashboarding etc, then have sharing for knowlegde transfer + mini projects for staff to practice

Board 2

keefe868 — 2024-05-29 06:34:05 UTC

Areas they excel in: variance analysis, understanding charging details

Areas of improvement: dovetailing MOF funding policies with core budget and business needs

Board 4

keefe868 — 2024-05-29 06:34:05 UTC

Board 3

keefe868 — 2024-05-29 06:34:05 UTC

They excel in:
1. Good stakeholder management
2. Data management since there’s a lot of data to manage and they’re handling it day in day out - actuals, LY initial budget, MYR budget, analytics
Points for improvement:
1. Better data analytics to ‘catch’ divisions with buffer so as to better manage marksmanship
2. Familiar with budget IMs so as to promptly advise divisions whenever needed

Board 1

keefe868 — 2024-05-29 06:34:05 UTC

Massive

Board 3

keefe868 — 2024-05-29 06:34:05 UTC

Exploratory

Board 2

keefe868 — 2024-05-29 06:34:05 UTC

Basic

Catching up

Board 4

keefe868 — 2024-05-29 06:34:05 UTC

Board 1

keefe868 — 2024-05-29 06:34:05 UTC

Excel in:

Ensuring accuracy

Following up closely with line depts

Improvement points:

Dig deeper to better understand cost drivers (beyond surface level cost basis) to uncover potential issues

Draw connections from business developments

Being pre-emptive and considering interventions early

Knowledge

keefe868 — 2024-05-29 06:34:05 UTC

Factual or procedural infomation

Board 3

keefe868 — 2024-05-29 06:34:05 UTC

Familiar with:
budgeting policy
activities that the lines he/she is supporting
SB FRS

Board 2

keefe868 — 2024-05-29 06:34:05 UTC

MOF's funding + budget policies

Govt accounting n financial rules

Entity's own financial system, especially w.r.t AP and GL modules

Board 4

keefe868 — 2024-05-29 06:34:05 UTC

Board 1

keefe868 — 2024-05-29 06:34:05 UTC

IM, FCM (including keeping up to date with changes)

Government finance & budgeting concepts/ process etc

Attitude

keefe868 — 2024-05-29 06:34:05 UTC

Emotions or opinions towards something which influence behaviour

Skills

keefe868 — 2024-05-29 06:34:05 UTC

A demonstration of expertise, applied in a specific context.

Others

keefe868 — 2024-05-29 06:34:05 UTC

Values, beliefs and experiences which are difficult to train or learn but yet affect outcomes.

Board 1

keefe868 — 2024-05-29 06:34:05 UTC

Analytical

Critical thinking

Communication (both written & verbal/ presentation) + submissions

Stakeholder management

Good with numbers

Excel & other tools to facilitate budgeting/ analysis

Board 4

keefe868 — 2024-05-29 06:34:05 UTC

Board 2

keefe868 — 2024-05-29 06:34:05 UTC

Understanding cashflow - budget mgt is arguably managing that over different time horizons

Analytical skills to understand business which Fin is supporting

Cost (allocation) analysis

Data visualization

Managing stakeholders

Board 3

keefe868 — 2024-05-29 06:34:05 UTC

Data analytics, RPA, dashboarding, good and clear presentation, meticulous, good team player, able to identify areas of concerns and highlight to management, strategic thinking, adaptability, compliance knowledge

Board 4

keefe868 — 2024-05-29 06:34:05 UTC

Board 2

keefe868 — 2024-05-29 06:34:05 UTC

Board 3

keefe868 — 2024-05-29 06:34:05 UTC

Good EQ to better manage stakeholders

Board 1

keefe868 — 2024-05-29 06:34:05 UTC

Good for officers to have varied experience, eg rotate across finance functions or even other agencies

Board 2

keefe868 — 2024-05-29 06:34:05 UTC

Resilience

Intellectual curiosity - how does entity's op env n business model results in resource and budget?

Business partnership

Board 4

keefe868 — 2024-05-29 06:34:05 UTC

Board 1

keefe868 — 2024-05-29 06:34:05 UTC

Curious

Collaborative

Positive

Meticulous

Board 3

keefe868 — 2024-05-29 06:34:05 UTC

Diligent
Attention to detail
proactive