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

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21 DOT Strategic Information Management What Is Strategic Information Management? Chapter 2 reviewed the importance of information to DOTs for getting better results, the chang- ing nature of the information landscape, and the challenges to improving how information is man- aged. This chapter introduces the key elements of strategic information management that provide a way for DOTs to consider the factors reviewed in Chapter 2 and chart a clear path forward. In this guide, the term “strategic information management” means a set of techniques for man- aging information to maximize improvements in organizational performance. Strategic informa- tion management is fundamentally about bringing the right information to the right people in the right form and at the right time and making wise choices about information investments that will stand the test of time. It is important to note that information management is not the same as information technol- ogy. An information management strategy for an agency defines business needs and priorities for information and articulates how this information should be curated, organized, and delivered so that business units can access it as needed. An information technology strategy identifies how infor- mation technology—computer hardware, software, and communications links—can help to meet these needs. A DOT’s information technology unit is an important enabler of information man- agement and should participate in developing and implementing the information management strategy; however, the information management strategy should be business-driven. Being strategic about information management means clarifying how information is expected to help the agency deliver on its mission and making conscious choices about investments that maximize payoff from information, including putting in place the necessary resources and com- petencies for sound information management practices. Of course, this is easier to talk about in the abstract than to put into practice. Importance of Leadership The starting point for undertaking strategic information management is to ensure that DOT leaders have information management on their agendas. Without strong leadership • A fragmented approach will prevail making it difficult to achieve integrated information that serves the agency as a whole. • It will be difficult to change how decisions are made about new investments in information and enabling technologies. • It will be difficult to establish and enforce policies that will allow agencies to move forward with managing their corporate information assets, analogous to the need for a centralized approach to financial management and human resources management. C H A P T E R 3

22 Leadership Guide for Strategic Information Management for State Departments of Transportation In recent years, the topic of information and its strategic importance to DOTs has been part of the conversation at AASHTO Leadership Forums. For example, at the 2013 AASHTO CEO Leadership Forum, several current and former DOT directors spoke about data and information (University of Minnesota Center for Transportation Studies, 2013). John Njord, former director of the Utah DOT, remarked The idea here is that with real data, you can have a real conversation. . . .We’re trying to collect all of that data we have within our department and put it into a format that our designers, customers, and anyone else who wants it has access to and can use to make better decisions . . . We had the confidence in our data that enabled us to squeeze money off higher-volume roads and put it into the lower-volume roads, which then made a very significant difference on those lower-volume roads . . . That’s where data can help us do our jobs better. We make much better decisions when we have data that is consistent, repeatable, and available. Paul Trombino, director of the Iowa DOT, said I don’t think [construction of infrastructure] is our primary role any more. I believe we are now facili- tators of information . . . To me, mobility is information . . . you can’t be mobile without information. Conversations on these topics continued at the 2014 CEO Leadership Forum. This meeting was held at the ITS World Congress meeting in Detroit, Michigan, and yielded the following summary observations (Cambridge Systematics, Inc., 2014): Data was presented as the currency of future transportation opportunities. The DOTs collect, analyze, and archive great volumes of data. Within each data set there are issues of accuracy, granularity, owner- ship, governance, and quality. Between states, there are issues of standardization. Within a DOT there are issues of changing skill sets of the DOT employee required to harness the power of the data being collected. When the private sector enters the data discussion, the DOT is the convener. The DOT data should be “machine ready” if meaningful partnerships are to be advanced. Data-sharing arrangements with third-party providers, open data, and data collection equipment and investment are key elements of implementation. This growing awareness of the importance of data and information on the part of state DOT leadership means that now is an opportune time to define a process that DOTs can follow to define an agency-wide vision and strategy for information management. Key Elements of Strategic Information Management Strategic information management involves a set of coordinated activities to • Understand how information supports agency goals, • Manage information as an agency asset, and • Drive and sustain organizational change. Understand How Information Supports Agency Goals The first key activity of strategic information management at a DOT is to establish an under- standing of how information supports agency goals and priority initiatives. These may include a combination of externally focused goals (such as improving safety, reducing recurring conges- tion, improving incident response time, maintaining infrastructure in a state of good repair, providing responsive customer service, or speeding project delivery) and internally focused goals (such as improving budget adherence, improving utilization of fleet and equipment, or speeding orientation of new employees). Table 1 lists examples of how information supports DOT goals. At a high level, identifying information needs to support agency goals is relatively straight- forward. Surveys and focus groups can be used to systematically assess needs and gaps. However,

DOT Strategic Information Management 23 meeting these needs through data gathering and information system improvements is costly. If a DOT’s employees and partners were asked to develop a wish list of items to meet information needs and make associated system improvements, it is likely that the resulting list would be very long, with a price tag that would well exceed what the agency could afford to spend. The real challenge is in prioritizing across competing needs and understanding interdependencies with respect to information creation and use. Meeting this challenge involves a more in-depth look at information criticality. In other words, what are the consequences of not having the right information, and what is (or could be) the true value of information improvements? To be useful, an information management strategy needs to make a compelling business case for how information investments support agency goals. The strategy needs to separate the “essential” from the “might be useful.” Manage Information as an Agency Asset The second key element of strategic information management is to operate in a manner that recognizes information as an important agency asset, analogous to infrastructure assets and human resources. This involves • Understanding data and information needs across the organization; • Keeping track of what the agency’s information assets are and what value they are providing; Goal Strategy How Information Adds Value Safety Reduce Roadway Departures Identify highest risk locations based on crash history and road inventory data Mobility Improve Incident Response Speed up incident response and clearance based on real-time congestion data and reported events Facilitate Shifts in Travel Behavior Provide travelers with information they need to avoid congestion by changing their time of travel, mode of travel, and/or route Asset Preservation Invest in Preventive Maintenance to Extend Asset Life Identify assets in appropriate age or condition range for preventive maintenance to be effective Customer Satisfaction Proactively Address Common Concerns Discover patterns through analysis of customer issues from call center and social media and tailor agency response and communications for maximum impact Integrate Available Information Needed for Customer Requests Make available integrated information on highway geometry, maintenance resources and responsibilities, sign/signal data, right- of-way, and work zones so that call center operators can deploy the right resources in response to a call in a timely manner Efficiency Streamline Construction Project Delivery Track on-time, on-budget status of projects and provide early warning to managers of missed milestones and other indicators of problems Risk Management Improve Management of Agency Policies and Procedures Ensure that employees and contractors are using authoritative versions of agency policies and procedures Table 1. Examples of information supporting DOT goals and strategies.

24 Leadership Guide for Strategic Information Management for State Departments of Transportation • Managing information throughout its life cycle to preserve its value (collection/acquisition, storage, retrieval, analysis and reporting, archiving or long-term preservation, and disposal); • Allocating resources for information management and improvement to maximize agency- wide benefit; and • Monitoring the value added from information assets in order to validate the business case for those assets and decide whether to abandon, maintain, or enhance them. The AASHTO Standing Committee on Planning (SCOP) Data Subcommittee has defined a set of data principles for state DOTs that elaborate on what it means to treat data as an asset. These principles apply to information in general (not just structured data) and have themes similar to those that have been independently established by individual state DOTs in Minnesota, Alaska, and Washington. Drive and Sustain Organizational Change The third key element of strategic information management is to effect meaningful changes in the organization’s capacity to produce, manage, and use information, including the following: • Establishing standard operating procedures for how available information is to be used within planning, budgeting, project scoping, risk assessment, programming, monitoring, and com- munications functions; • Assigning responsibility and accountability for gathering, checking, managing, and providing internal and external access to information; • Building workforce capabilities to ensure that the agency is well-positioned to take advantage of current methods and technologies; • Putting the right competencies in place for effective data and content management; and AASHTO SCOP Data Principles • Principle 1 – VALUABLE: Data is an asset—Data is a core business asset that has value and is managed accordingly. • Principle 2 – AVAILABLE: Data is open, accessible, transparent and shared— Access to data is critical to performing duties and functions, data must be open and usable for diverse applications and open to all. • Principle 3 – RELIABLE: Data quality and extent is fit for a variety of applications— Data quality is acceptable and meets the needs for which it is intended. • Principle 4 – AUTHORIZED: Data is secure and compliant with regulations—Data is trustworthy and is safeguarded from unauthorized access, whether malicious, fraudulent or erroneous. • Principle 5 – CLEAR: There is a common vocabulary and data definition—Data dictionaries are developed and metadata established to maximize consistency and transparency of data across systems. • Principle 6 – EFFICIENT: Data is not duplicated—Data is collected once and used many times for many purposes. • Principle 7 – ACCOUNTABLE: Decisions maximize the benefit of data. Timely, relevant, high-quality data are essential to maximize the utility of data for decision-making. Source: (AASHTO Subcommittee on Data, n.d.)

DOT Strategic Information Management 25 • Incentivizing good information management practices on the part of employees (e.g., check- ing data quality prior to distribution, storing documents in designated shared repositories, identifying sensitive information to be protected, etc.). Without these types of changes, it will be difficult to move from fragmented decision-making about information acquisition and management to an enterprise-wide approach. In addition, it will be difficult to marshal available resources (including funding, expertise, and staff time) across the agency in order to make essential improvements in information management that make a real difference and help the agency achieve its objectives. This element is perhaps the most challenging of the three, but it is critical. Driving and sus- taining organizational change requires strong leadership to take on entrenched behaviors and long-established areas of autonomy. At the same time, strong leadership alone will not achieve organizational change. Successful and sustained change also requires agency champions “on the ground” who have credibility, believe in the proposed changes, and will work through the details of implementation. Organizational change can be addressed incrementally through a combina- tion of strategic recruiting, education and communication, and changes to incentive and reward structures.