Transit Enterprise Architecture and Planning Framework (2011)

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E X E C U T I V E S U M M A R Y The Transit Enterprise Architecture and Planning (TEAP) Framework project sought to provide transit agencies with a roadmap and tools to successfully implement Information Technology (IT) and Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) technologies that meet their business needs. The systems management areas that compose the TEAP Framework include the following disciplines: • Enterprise Architecture and Enterprise Architecture Process (EA/EAP) • Business Case Methodology (BCM) • Funding Implementation (FI) • Project Systems Engineering (SE) • Post-Implementation Analysis (PIA) Project Overview The objective of the project was to identify key elements and develop a coherent frame- work that is critical to successfully deploying IT (specifically ITS) projects. The resulting framework should adopt best, streamlined practices from the broader IT industry and show- case good examples from the transit industry. Furthermore, the resulting research should provide resources and building blocks that other public transportation organizations could share, borrow, and learn from each other. The project was divided into two phases. In Phase I, the tasks consisted of doing research to understand the current state of the practice and developing the preliminary TEAP Framework, guidance and tools that compose the roadmap for developing successful IT/ITS projects. The Framework guidance and tools were placed on a wiki website, www.tcrp-teap.pbworks.com. Specifically, the Framework helps: • Guide an agency’s planning process and investment criteria, • Improve its understanding of risks and risk management, • Verify and validate compliance with its needs and stakeholder requirements, • Better manage system project implementation, and • Enhance the measurement of results and benefits. The Phase II objectives focused on refining the Framework materials and developing enterprise architecture-related building blocks for the transit industry so that they can more quickly create their own agency-specific enterprise architectures. Transit enterprise architecture templates and tools were created by adapting an existing transit enterprise architecture developed by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) Transit Enterprise Architecture and Planning Framework 1

2into a more generic Reference Enterprise Architecture for Transit. The TEAP Framework’s enterprise architecture materials and tools were the focus of the Phase II evaluation and pilot efforts by transit agencies. Phase I Results Phase I tasks consisted of preparing a research synthesis and developing the preliminary TEAP Framework, guidance, and tools. Part of the Phase I research focused on understand- ing the current state of the practice in transit, that is, how transit agencies and transportation authorities currently understand, apply, and use each of the five disciplines that compose the TEAP Framework. Building on the project research and best practices, the project fused these disciplines into a coherent TEAP Framework that showed their interrelationships, flows, and synergies. A wiki website was developed to store the project results. As guidance for transit was developed, it was made available on the website, including a Guidance for Transit Managers document. A summary of these Phase I results is included below. Research Synthesis The research included a task to identify best practices in the IT industry and the current state of the practice for transit providers with respect to the five disciplines, as well as how they fit together within an agency. A literature search was conducted, and surveys were developed to interview transit professionals in a range of different transit agencies. To pro- vide a reasonable sample of agencies for the telephone interviews, a group of 14 transit agen- cies and three DOTs was selected for interviews. The results of the surveys are included in Appendix B. In summary, the synthesis found that application of each of the five disciplines is growing, but lags behind other vertical industries. Many large transit agencies are currently developing more formal methods and procedures to implement all of the included disci- plines. The most difficult of the five disciplines for agencies to implement is the enterprise architecture, and very few agencies have the resources or time to implement even part of an enterprise architecture. TEAP Framework Overview The Framework helps transit professionals understand the financial, operational, and man- agement impacts of technologies, to help them better meet their enterprise business process needs and corporate objectives. The Framework helps guide an agency’s IT/ITS planning process, improve its understanding of risks, better manage the project implementation effort, validate and verify compliance with its needs, and measure results and benefits. Specifically, the TEAP Framework guides transit in: • Planning how information, services, and technology will connect across an enterprise to support business processes, solve problems, and measure performance; • Promoting information sharing across agency and institutional barriers; • Ensuring that IT/ITS projects are defined and staged in a way that delivers the best value and supports successful project implementation, operations, and maintenance; • Ensuring that the benefits and costs of proposed IT/ITS projects are understood across the project’s lifecycle (including operations and maintenance) and that resources are available to support the program; • Specifying IT/ITS projects to maximize the IT/ITS investment decisions across the organization;

3• Ensuring that IT/ITS projects meet stakeholder needs: requirements are explicitly described, risks are identified and mitigated, and the system development process is managed to ensure that correct operations and requirements are met; and • Describing the leadership and processes that ensure that the organization’s IT group supports and extends corporate strategies and objectives. The Framework is composed of five System Development disciplines as follows: • Enterprise Architecture Planning (EAP), which is used to model the organization’s poli- cies, structure, locations, business processes, information, applications, and technologies, and their relationship to each other (i.e., the organization’s blueprint); • Business Case Methodology (BCM), which describes how well a project fits into the orga- nization’s stated priorities, as well as the risks, benefits and costs, and estimated return on investment (ROI); • Funding Implementation, which investigates alternative approaches for how to pay for IT/ITS projects; • Systems Engineering (SE), which is used to help design and manage an IT/ITS Project implementation; and • Post-Implementation Analysis (PIA), which provides a method to assess whether the implementation met project and agency goals and achieved a meaningful (estimated) ROI and to review the project implementation experience for lessons learned. Figure 1 shows the flow of these five TEAP components. TEAP Wiki Outreach, transfer, and sustainability of the Framework depends on communicating and sharing the best ideas and efforts with other transit professionals. Building on best practices from the transit industry and other industries, a wiki, or collaborative website, was devel- oped to document the recommendations for the Framework, as well as provide a forum and space for transit professionals to share and exchange their approaches to implementing ele- ments of the Framework. The resources collected during the synthesis tasks were made avail- able on the wiki so that transit staff could find a collection of existing resources that explain the multitude of approaches that are available through National Transit Institute (NTI), American Public Transportation Association (APTA), Federal Transit Administration (FTA), and other outreach efforts. The medium that presented the TEAP Framework needed to address three major needs: • Develop guidance on the TEAP that targeted multiple audiences (without intimidating any of them by the size of the document). • Present the material using a medium that was logical, easy to use, and allowed for seam- less linkage to show the relationships between the elements (and external resources). • Provide the industry with a site where collaboration and information navigation was intu- itive and easy to use while preventing spamming and misuse of the site. The research team populated the site with the Framework Guidance and EA/EAP Guide- book. The site lays out the Framework Guidance in a systematic way, with sections target- ing different audiences, from executives and senior managers to program managers and technical practitioners (see Table 1 for details).

4Guidance for Transit Managers A short executive report was developed for executive and senior managers (see Guidance for Transit Managers in Appendix A), which included a high-level summary of the Frame- work and a checklist for managers to assist them with their management oversight of tech- nology projects. Targeted for transit professionals who desire only a short synopsis of the con- tent of the Framework, the report includes a brief description of each of the five disciplines, their benefits, and the synergistic relationships between them. In addition, a general set of roles for transit managers is included, as well as checklists that are specific to each of the TEAP Framework elements. The checklists are designed to assist transit managers in enabling their staff and the transit organization to effectively assess, acquire, and enhance IT/ITS systems. The Guidance for Transit Managers report is available on the wiki and in Appendix A. Phase II Results: Reference Enterprise Architecture for Transit Phase II focused on generating a Reference Enterprise Architecture for Transit, and val- idating this architecture with transit agencies of different sizes, modes, and organizational structures. POST- IMPLEMENTATION ANALYSIS BUSINESS CASE METHODOLOGY Potential Projects Approved Projects Project Flow Supporting Information Flow KEY EAP Enterprise Architecture IT/ITS Strategic Plan • Performance • Business • Data • Applications • Technology SYSTEMS ENGINEERING • Budget Process • Operating & Capital :: Programs FUNDING INPUTS • Vision / Mission / Goals • Internal • External / Regional Figure 1. Five components of TEAP.

5The general purpose of an enterprise architecture is to understand the connections between your organization’s business processes and stakeholders (users, upstream providers, and downstream recipients); this information is used to measure performance and make decisions, as well as to develop applications and technology that enable the services and generate the information. Most transit agencies support similar business processes, information views, applications and technologies. The models that represent each layer do not differ greatly either. This provides an opportunity for the industry to describe a generic reference that may be customized based on the particular agency, rather than having each transit agency start from scratch. A reference architecture defines the common elements found in each of the four enterprise architecture levels and their typical relationships to each other. The Reference Enterprise Architecture for Transit was developed from a comprehensive, albeit high-level, existing enterprise architecture (EA) developed by the Washington Met- ropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA). The WMATA EA presented a starting point that detailed some of the complexities of large transit agencies (with several modes), yet may Table 1. TEAP Framework Wiki. ecneiduA noitpircseD ikiW krowemarF PAET Guidance for Transit Managers A high-level description of the TEAP Framework, including the purpose and benefits associated with each Framework element and the interrelationships. In addition, the guidance includes a checklist that enumerates the roles and responsibilities of transit managers with respect to each of the elements. This section includes a self- contained, downloadable version that can be printed and read in hard copy. Transit executive and senior managers. TEAP Framework Guidance: • Executive Summary • EA/EAP • BCM • Funding • Project SE • Post- Implementation A detailed description of each TEAP Framework element, including: information on the what, why and benefits of the element; best practices and streamlined approaches; and additional resources, including references, tools, and examples from the Information Technology (IT) and transit industries. Program managers and transit professionals who want to learn more about the topics. Transit EAP Guidebook The Transit EAP Guidebook details step-by- step how to develop a transit enterprise architecture (as-is and to-be). The Guidebook shows how to customize the Reference Enterprise Architecture for Transit to represent the drivers, business processes, information, applications, and technologies in your organization. The Guidebook is an interactive and extendable “space” on the wiki to describe a Reference Enterprise Architecture for Transit, and to include related terms and techniques for implementing a transit enterprise architecture. It includes models, templates, examples, and benefits associated with each step. Program managers and transit practitioners who are tasked with implementing an EAP and maintaining the as- is and to-be enterprise architectures. State of the Practice Synthesis Results A summary of the State of the Practice Synthesis related to the five elements of the TEAP Framework. All Other Resources How-To Guides Glossary and Acronym List FAQs About the Project and the Wiki Site Map Improvement Page All

6be scaled down to smaller organizations. To ensure that the WMATA EA represented the diverse transit industry, a team of transit IT experts from more than a dozen transit agencies representing small, medium, and large agencies; covering urban/suburban/rural transit; and supporting different modes were brought together to review and walkthrough the architec- ture. In addition, several EA experts from other sectors were included in the expert-peer review group. As other agencies heard about the Reference TEAP, they too asked to partic- ipate in reviewing, piloting, or commenting on elements of the architecture. Three workshops were conducted for the participants to review, recommend, and agree to changes regarding the proposed Reference TEAP. The first workshop highlighted a pre- sentation from the Chief of Architecture from WMATA, Jamey Harvey, on the WMATA EA. Mr. Harvey described the EA organization (metamodel), content, and general principles he used at WMATA. The second workshop focused on how to make the architecture more generic and what segment to select for review and refinement (development of one or more “solu- tions”). The result of this second workshop was the selection of the fare management area for review. Prior to the final workshop, research team members interviewed different agencies that were developing typical and new solutions for fare management. The models included closed systems that most agencies currently implement, an open payment system, and the emerging mobile/branded card payment system. Several transit agencies reviewed the resulting artifacts; some agencies applied their exist- ing systems to the model or solutions to validate them. The results of these pilots are described in Chapter 6. The final reference architecture, the four fare management solutions, stream- lined implementation guidance (with tools and templates), and approach for incorporating solutions were included in the Phase I wiki site.