Leadership Guide for Strategic Information Management for State Departments of Transportation (2016)

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1 Leadership Guide for Strategic Information Management for State Departments of Transportation Strategic Information Management A Strategic Approach to Managing Information Strategic management is the well-established practice of assessing the current and likely future environment, setting a future course, taking action, measuring progress, and adjusting as needed. Strategic information management can be viewed as an adjunct to a strategic management process with a focus on information. The premise of strategic information management is that information is an asset that requires deliberate man- agement in order to maximize value. Many departments of transportation (DOTs) have established a mission, vision, and goals and perform business planning based on this strategic framework, but strategic information management is still an evolving practice at DOTs. A strategic information management process allows an agency to • Maximize value from available information to help meet the agency’s goals and objectives; • Maximize the efficiency of how information is collected, processed, stored, accessed, shared, and used; and • Improve organizational readiness to take advantage of new information sources and methods for analysis and visualization. Development of an information management strategy is not the same as developing an information technology strategy. While information technology clearly needs to play an important role, the success of strategic information management goes beyond technology deployment and depends on involvement and commitment across the entire senior leader- ship team of the DOT. Because each DOT is different, there is no single one-size-fits-all way of approaching strategic information management. However, all agencies can benefit from taking a critical look at current practices and systematically considering opportunities for improvement. Business Drivers for Improved Information Management In an ideal world, state DOT leaders would have the ability to quickly draw upon all of the agency’s data and information to understand agency performance; “steer the ship” in the right direction; and make sound, defensible decisions. Many agencies are working toward this vision, but face organizational, technological, and resource hurdles. With limited staff time and dollars for internal agency improvements and a constantly changing information and technology landscape, DOTs face difficult questions about where to focus. S U M M A R Y

2 Leadership Guide for Strategic Information Management for State Departments of Transportation DOTs, like other organizations, are experiencing a digital information explosion. In 2013, 4.4 zetabytes of data (equivalent to over a trillion DVDs) were created or copied worldwide, and this amount is doubling every 2 years (EMC, 2014). In 2014, the average business user sent and received 122 emails per day, and this number is expected to increase as well (The Radicati Group, Inc., 2015). The shift from paper to digital formats brings many opportuni- ties for improved efficiencies and better decision-making. Yet many DOTs find themselves in a data-rich, information-poor situation. Availability of more information in electronic form doesn’t necessarily translate into greater productivity or effectiveness. In fact, some employees find they are spending more and more of the workday searching for and piecing together information from disparate sources (IDC, 2001; McKinsey Global Institute, n.d.). Without deliberate management, disciplined processes, and investments in the right skills and technologies, DOTs miss out on improvement opportunities and face escalating costs and risks of information loss or exposure. DOTs produce and use data and information in multiple forms—including maps, plans, web pages, social media posts, images, emails, memos, reports, presentations, database records, and increasingly, continuous real-time data streams. People both within and outside of the agency expect to be able to access this information in an integrated fashion—anytime, anywhere, and through multiple channels: • Agency executives and managers want to see current, relevant information about agency performance. • Agency staff members want information about their projects and activities to be available, preferably from an easily searchable, “self-service” source. • Agency partners and stakeholders want to see information about funding programs, projects, system condition, travel options, incidents, and more. • In addition, public disclosure and Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests for agency records are on the rise and can be extremely time consuming to fulfill. Agency staff members are straining to respond to these varied and evolving demands for information. Meeting these demands in a consistent and efficient manner requires new kinds of coordination across different organizational functions responsible for different types of information and different aspects of information management—including engi- neering document management, records management, public affairs, intranet site manage- ment, research and library management, data management, and information technology. Purpose of this Guide With recent advances in information storage, integration, search, and retrieval technolo- gies, there are many opportunities to improve the availability and delivery of information. There is no shortage of technology investment opportunities—document management sys- tems, web content management systems, workgroup collaboration tools, data warehouses/ enterprise data integration solutions, dashboard and reporting tools, as well as modern- ization of business systems. In addition, DOTs are considering changes to data collection processes to take advantage of new technologies as well as purchase commercial data. When implemented in a coordinated fashion, with sufficient attention to people and process, these information investments can have profound and far-reaching implications for how deci- sions are made, for internal agency efficiency, and for the agency’s public image and relation- ships with partners. Yet, DOTs have limited resources to invest and can take on only so many new initiatives for change.

Leadership Guide for Strategic Information Management for State Departments of Transportation 3 In this context, DOT executives would be well served to step back and consider the fol- lowing questions: • How can we be smarter about managing and delivering information so that it adds value without weighing us down? • How should we prioritize different data, information, and technology investments given resource limitations? • How can we strengthen and better coordinate agency information management functions? These are complex questions that are best answered in conjunction with an agency’s stra- tegic planning and management processes. This guide provides a framework that DOTs can use to better harness the value of information through strategic planning, information gov- ernance, process improvement, technology investments, and workforce development. This guide can be read and followed in its entirety or used as a reference for improvement ideas. Other NCHRP Resources This guide is part of a growing body of NCHRP work on the topic of data, information, and knowledge management at state DOTs. Related work includes the following: • NCHRP Report 754: Improving Management of Transportation Information (NCHRP Project 20-90). • NCHRP Report 813: A Guide to Agency-Wide Knowledge Management for State Departments of Transportation (NCHRP Project 20-98). • NCHRP Report 814: Data to Support Transportation Agency Business Needs: A Self-Assessment Guide (NCHRP Project 08-92). • NCHRP Project 20-97, “Improving Findability and Relevance of Transportation Infor- mation” (research in progress).