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CHAPTER 3
State of the Practice
To develop an assessment of the state of the practice, the Enterprise Architecture and
research team reviewed available industry literature and con- Enterprise Architecture
ducted telephone interviews with a sample of transit agencies Planning (EA/EAP)
as well as several state DOTs. The literature search and inter-
The scan of the transit industry revealed limited adoption
views covered the five major elements included in the TEAP
and understanding of EAP. Overall, few "lessons learned"
Framework:
emerged through the industry scan because few organizations
engage in planning and documenting their EA. Industry lit-
· Enterprise Architecture and Enterprise Architecture Plan-
erature related to transit ITS technology deployment is rife
ning (EA/EAP)
with examples about how the lack of enterprise architecture
· Business Case Methodology (BCM)
planning is limiting success in system deployments.
· ITS Funding Implementation (FI) Among the organizations interviewed, most of the Chief
· Systems Engineering (SE) Information Officers (CIOs) or IT managers were familiar
· Post-Implementation Review (PIR) with the concept, particularly if they came from other indus-
tries. However, few had the resources or management support
To provide a reasonable sample of agencies for the tele- to undertake a comprehensive enterprise architecture planning
phone interviews, a group of 14 transit agencies and three process. Fewer were versed on the "segment architecture"
DOTs was selected for interviews. Survey protocols were approach currently applied by other industries. WMATA and
developed for the interviews. A standard set of interview Miami-Dade Transit were the two transit agencies that said
questions was administered to all the agencies. In addition, they were working on EAP. Details of these two implementa-
some agencies were asked more detailed questions on some tions are described in the State of the Practice Synthesis (see
Framework areas, if the screening questions discovered Appendix B).
issues to probe further and if time was available. The first
column in Table 2 shows the agencies and state DOTs that
were interviewed. Several agencies were asked more detailed Business Case Methodology (BCM)
questions about their experience with the Framework areas. The screening survey included questions about the organi-
The checked columns in Table 2 represent the agencies that zation's use of a BCM, verified terminology, and asked about
were surveyed in more detail on selected topics. The "Gen- the use of a Return on Investment (ROI) analysis and other
eral" column refers to the standard questions asked of every cost-related analyses in justifying an IT/ITS project. Addi-
interviewee. tional follow-up questions were asked of a subset of respon-
dents. The details of the responses and resources are available
in the State of the Practice Synthesis (see Appendix B). This
Summary of Results
section includes several questions and a summary of the gen-
Interviews included questions from the general survey as eral responses. In addition, the section elaborates on several
well as more detailed surveys for each of the five Framework organizations that have a process in place to apply business
areas. The following sections summarize the findings. case analysis as part of their IT/ITS project approval process.
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Table 2. Transit agencies and state DOTs interviews for industry scan.
Agency General EA/EAP BCM Funding Systems Eng. PIR
C-Tran
Hampton Roads
Iowa DOT
Kansas DOT
King County
Metro
Lynx
MARTA
Miami-Dade
NY State DOT
Paducah
RIPTA
River Bend
SEPTA
TriMet
UTA
Wichita
WMATA
Does your organization have a process for scope changes, deciding the issues to be presented to other
proposing, justifying, and approving an IT stakeholders and for accepting the final work product. The
or ITS investment (a BCM)? sponsor is typically the most senior person from the business
unit needing the work who will stay informed of and involved
Approximately one-half of the organizations had some
in the project." In their BCM, the project sponsor has a quick
sort of process, whether it was IT/ITS-specific or the general
reference document with checklists to help them in their
agency budget approval process, for proposing, justifying,
role of facilitating the project's success. Examples of some
and approving IT/ITS investments. Only a few of the agencies
of the project sponsors' checklists, which help them do
had an IT/ITS-specific process that provided templates and
their job, are included in the State of the Practice Synthesis
guidance for staff that needed to initiate and justify a project.
(Appendix B).
Some respondents said their organization used consultants to
WMATA. WMATA is working on the development of an
build the justification for a project. Another said, "Nobody in
Enterprise Architecture and also has a project management
our organization formally requires a BCM process, we have
standard budget justification forms, but no official BCM doc- methodology that it uses. As a result, their BCM includes a
ument or process. However, we end up doing some of a BCM's reference to the Enterprise Architecture. The project manage-
steps to justify the project to the management and Board as ment methodology includes a Business Plan Initiation (BPI)
part of the budget process, and because it's helpful." process, although the process does not always require a justi-
TriMet. The public transportation agency for the Portland, fication for all projects. The BPI feeds into the capital plan-
OR, metropolitan region (TriMet) felt that the BCM should ning framework for all projects. A streamlined form for the
be simple, clear, flexible, and understood by all the stakehold- Business Plan Initiation Review process and instructions for
ers. Flexibility was important, so the business case could be completing the form are included in the State of the Practice
scaled based on the size and complexity of the project to Synthesis (Appendix B). The form summarizes all the project
ensure it would be used for all projects and not be skipped justification documents.
because of an onerous process. Basic templates are available King County Metro (KCM). Over the last 15 years, King
for the Project Charter, the Planning Report (which is shown County Metro has used a couple of different processes for
in Appendix A), Alternatives Analysis, and other aspects of developing a business case. Currently, KCM must use King
justifying the project. They stated that the analysis should County government's process for justifying and approving
consider all the system life cycle stages, including feasibility, IT/ITS projects. The process is described in a 69-page docu-
design, development, implementation, operation and main- ment titled, "Project Manager Guide to PRB Reviews,"
tenance, and the end of the life cycle when the system is ter- which also references other documents for additional guid-
minated or replaced. ance (1). Two tables from the Guide, which show the sug-
Further, TriMet has a project sponsor for each project, gested deliverables for Phase I (called Project Planning) and
with ". . . responsibility for approving budget, schedule and for Phase II (called Project Development), which in King
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County's process includes the "business case," are included nical outcomes which included "Leverages and/or extends
in the State of the Practice Synthesis (Appendix B). The Proj- integration architecture." WMATA's Business Plan Initiation
ect Planning phase is typically completed as a preliminary form includes "Implement Authority-wide Integration" as an
request for funding to further build the business case in IT priority.
Phase II. King County employs a gated process, with fund-
ing released by project phase.
In your organization, what have been the
benefits and issues pertaining to
Does your organization use the term completing a BCM?
"Business Case Methodology"?
TriMet felt that the BCM helps with ensuring a common
Only one respondent said that the term "Business Case understanding of the project and helps manage expectations.
Methodology" was used in his or her organization. A few High-level documentation of the project from the BCM and
respondents wanted to know what the term meant before project management process is available for stakeholders to
answering the question. Terms that were used for their agency's access (they have it in a database).
process for approving IT/ITS projects included Business Case, Standardization of the steps helped simplify training on the
QBC or Quantified Business Case, Phased Gate Review, and process, helped readers quickly find information, and helped
BPI or Business Plan Initiation. In a Phased Gate Review somewhat with comparisons between projects.
process, a management review event occurs between specified At Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA),
project phases to determine if the project should proceed the head of IT said, "You are relating what you want to do
"through the gate" to the next phase. to the business needs, costs, and impacts. You show why the
project should be done, not just providing an opinion or
Does your BCM vary by type of system gut feel."
or IT/ITS project? If so, how? Issues pertaining to the BCM included finding the time
and resources to do the analyses. Finding the data to do the
Of those agencies with a BCM, all allowed for lesser detail ROI was also cited as an issue. A concern was stated that some-
in describing the business case, depending on the size and times, for some projects, the process can take so long that the
perceived risk of the project. Some skipped steps when they user requirements and technology options change before the
knew the project was required. Others were acutely aware of project is started.
the costs of doing the analyses and wanted to keep the level of
effort commensurate with the estimated project costs, com-
plexity, and risks. Does your organization usually perform a
King County provided the only form for determining the Return on Investment (ROI) analysis as part
level of oversight a project might require, which drives the of the IT/ITS project justification process?
number and detail level of the forms to be submitted. The four
A majority of the respondents said their agency had con-
categories of factors used to determine project risk rating are
ducted an ROI analysis on one or more IT/ITS projects. More
project size, project manager experience, team experience,
than one respondent was unclear on the difference between a
and project type. The Project Size factor rates the project on
cost-benefit analysis and an ROI analysis. "ROI analyses"
size, primarily based upon onetime cost estimates and, sec-
were conducted on key projects at some agencies that did not
ondarily, on project duration. The Project Type factor rates
the technical complexity of the work being undertaken. have a BCM. Conversely, the existence of a BCM at an organ-
ization did not mean that an ROI analysis was always com-
pleted on a project, although some level of cost analysis was
If yes, does the BCM consider: (Operations always done.
and maintenance costs and requirements,
agency architecture, regional ITS
architecture, integration options, Other cost-related analyses completed
other enterprise-wide thinking)? when a new project is being justified.
All the business case methodologies took into considera- Many of the agencies completed some form of a cost-benefit
tion operations and maintenance costs. The business case analysis. For a subset, Total Cost of Ownership was calculated.
methodologies also considered one or more aspects of the King County has a process for completing a "Quantified
agency architecture and/or the regional ITS architecture. Business Case." Another said, "they consider if the overall
One of the King County BCM forms had a checklist of tech- cost exceeds the benefits."
