As state departments of transportation (DOTs) become increasingly data-driven, the importance of cohesively managing their data as an asset has grown. For example, most DOTs have their data, email, web content, engineering content, and records managed within separate divisions/locations. Information management (IM) becomes even more fragmented within individual business units, where specialized applications support specific processes.
This lack of coordination creates multiple repositories with different search interfaces, access requirements, and use restrictions, which lead to further data duplication and quality issues and make it difficult for employees to find what they need. This often means the information employees need to make decisions or perform their jobs in a timely manner is inaccessible or so widely scattered that it becomes unusable. Stakeholder outreach activities conducted as part of NCHRP Project 23-14, “Research Roadmap for Knowledge Management,” highlighted state DOTs’ concerns about fragmentation of data and information at their agencies and the need for guidelines on a holistic approach to managing these resources.
The objective of this research is threefold:
- Document inefficiencies, costs, and risks associated with siloed information systems and their impacts on information discovery and knowledge management (KM) practices at state DOTs and other transportation agencies.
- Describe how transportation agencies address inefficiencies and break down information/knowledge silos by connecting dispersed sources of data and providing convenient and timely access to information.
- Develop a holistic approach to information and KM that (a) provides a model for how state DOTs can align and coordinate practices for managing and governing different types and sources of data and information; (b) identifies key risks, opportunities, challenges, and how to tackle them; and (c) conveys the return on investment and benefits gained from improving IM/KM across the organization.
