BACKGROUND

NCHRP Report 666: Target-Setting Methods and Data Management to Support Performance-Based Resource Allocation by Transportation Agencies, Volume I: Research Report defines data governance as “the execution and enforcement of authority over the management of data assets and the performance of data functions.” The design and implementation of data governance approaches, optimized for different transportation organizations and business units within a transportation organization, is a recognized challenge. Experience with data governance approaches is also varied among state departments of transportation (DOTs), and there is an ongoing need for greater understanding of the most effective approaches and for improvements to those approaches as feasible.

Previous efforts have been carried out at various levels to explore different data governance strategies with different outcomes. NCHRP Report 754: Improving Management of Transportation Information covered subject areas such as open data and metadata standards, and presented case studies from DOTs around the United States. Even though this is a comprehensive study, it did not provide a structured approach for DOT-wide data governance of geographic information systems (GIS) and other related data. NCHRP Synthesis 508: Data Management and Governance Practices developed a collection of transportation agency data management practices and experiences. The report demonstrated how agencies access, manage, use, and share data. More recent case studies were presented in the Federal Highway Administration’s (FHWA) Data Governance & Data Management: Case Studies of Select Transportation Agencies. This report discovered that many of the agencies surveyed did not have official data management or data governance policies. They also presented lessons learned and challenges in this report. 

STATUS

The final deliverables for NCHRP Project 23-23 have been received, and are pending a publication decision.