BACKGROUND
State departments of transportation (DOTs) and other transportation agencies produce, exchange, manage, and use substantial quantities of data and information for project development and subsequent management of the system assets for which they are responsible. These agencies devote considerable resources to data collection and storage and often face challenges such as duplicatingeffort or gaps in data collected by various organizational units; ensuring that data sources are well documented and information is current; and providing the people responsible for planning, design, construction, and operations and maintenance of system assets with access to reliable current information for decision making.
Continuing rapid evolution of data and information technologies presents challenges as agencies seek to ensure that the transportation system delivers high performance and the agency functions effectively and efficiently. Remote sensing, Lidar, GIS, 3-D graphic displays, and virtual reality (to name a few of the newer developments) are supplementing or replacing data acquisition and information management practices once based on physical measurements and storage and display in large-format print media. Many agencies must deal with legacy data while avoiding obsolescence in their management practices.Typically fragmented DOT business practices and the decades-long processes of asset development and life-cycle service have produced disparate data sets that are poorly suited to effective long-term system asset and performance management.
The objectives of this NCHRP project was to develop a guidebook and related guidance materials, to ensure the usability of the guidance, and to encourage awareness and application of the guidance: principles, organizational strategies, governance mechanisms, and practical examples for improving management of the processes for collecting data, developing useful information, and providing that information for decision making about management of the transportation system assets.The guidance was developed to assist practitioners addressing such topics as these:
- Conducting agency self-assessments of information management practices (for example, a maturity model and leading-practices descriptions), using existing tools and techniques to the extent these are available;
- Exploring transferrable data and information management practices from a variety of sources—DOTs and others not necessarily restricted to domestic transportation agencies—that have demonstrated effective asset management;
- Considering how to incorporate evolving technologies and state-of-the-art management practices, for example by providing agencies with management scenarios and exemplary data models;
- Establishing organizational structure, personnel capabilities requirements, outsourcing policies and practices, and governance policies and procedures to support effective provision of asset management information;
- Assessing options for staff development, outsourcing, and other strategies for ensuring the agency has appropriate capability and capacity for asset information management; and
- Developing a management roadmap for implementing unified, enterprise-wide governance of asset data and information, from initial project development through transportation asset and performance management.
STATUS
Several research products were produced by NCHRP Project 08-115 as a result of the research phase, and a subsequent implementation effort that was funded through NCHRP 20-44: Implementation Support Program.
