National Academies Press: OpenBook

Development and Management of Sustainable Enterprise Information Portals (2018)

Chapter: Appendix A Full Interview Guide

« Previous: 8 Conclusion
Page 222
Suggested Citation:"Appendix A Full Interview Guide." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2018. Development and Management of Sustainable Enterprise Information Portals. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/25000.
×
Page 222
Page 223
Suggested Citation:"Appendix A Full Interview Guide." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2018. Development and Management of Sustainable Enterprise Information Portals. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/25000.
×
Page 223
Page 224
Suggested Citation:"Appendix A Full Interview Guide." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2018. Development and Management of Sustainable Enterprise Information Portals. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/25000.
×
Page 224
Page 225
Suggested Citation:"Appendix A Full Interview Guide." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2018. Development and Management of Sustainable Enterprise Information Portals. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/25000.
×
Page 225
Page 226
Suggested Citation:"Appendix A Full Interview Guide." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2018. Development and Management of Sustainable Enterprise Information Portals. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/25000.
×
Page 226
Page 227
Suggested Citation:"Appendix A Full Interview Guide." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2018. Development and Management of Sustainable Enterprise Information Portals. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/25000.
×
Page 227
Page 228
Suggested Citation:"Appendix A Full Interview Guide." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2018. Development and Management of Sustainable Enterprise Information Portals. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/25000.
×
Page 228
Page 229
Suggested Citation:"Appendix A Full Interview Guide." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2018. Development and Management of Sustainable Enterprise Information Portals. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/25000.
×
Page 229
Page 230
Suggested Citation:"Appendix A Full Interview Guide." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2018. Development and Management of Sustainable Enterprise Information Portals. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/25000.
×
Page 230

Below is the uncorrected machine-read text of this chapter, intended to provide our own search engines and external engines with highly rich, chapter-representative searchable text of each book. Because it is UNCORRECTED material, please consider the following text as a useful but insufficient proxy for the authoritative book pages.

  222      Appendix A Full Interview Guide   INTERVIEWER NOTE: This guide contains a list of questions.  However, it is anticipated that the conduct  of each interview will adopt a relaxed, conversational tone.  Please paraphrase or adjust the order of  questions to enhance rapport and keep the discussion moving forward. Focus on identifying processes,  resources and capabilities, technical necessities, components, barriers and issues, and concerns.   Introduction Prior to asking questions to the interviewee, we will  Identify who is on the phone and their role on the project  Identify goal of the project using the paragraph below:  State Departments of Transportation produce and use a non‐negligible amount and a large variety of  data and information to make decisions. Web portals have become the primary way of providing DOT  internal and external users with the information they want in a timely and cost‐effective manner. DOT  Enterprise information portals (EIPs) are how DOTs provide and manage several web portals to their  users. EIP are challenging to design, maintain and evolve because they encompass many diverse web  portals, many diverse datasets and functions. The goal of this project is to identify what are the  requirements of a DOT EIP web portal and what architecture should it use to be sustainable, that is to  grow with its datasets, adapt to new technologies (Sensors, GIS, etc.) and clients (mobile, tablets)  without requiring a complete redesign each time.  To establish these requirements and architecture, we want to learn about the kind of data and  information you work with and, if applicable, have you tell us about    Your portal architecture   Its data, user and goals   Its challenges and current issues   How it is maintained   How it is likely to evolve in the next 5 years   We will develop a guide to development and management of effective DOT enterprise information  portals for agency business‐management personnel to understand the issues to be addressed in making  information and data about the state’s transportation system and agency operations available to  information users and the responsibilities and costs associated with portal development and  maintenance. The guide should also help agency information technology managers to develop strategies  for evolving existing EIPs and creating new ones to effectively and sustainably deliver information of  value to users.   Additional comments about the interview: 

  223      Today’s conversation is scheduled for one hour, and we have some questions to guide us and make sure  we finish within the time frame  Beg forgiveness for pushing ahead on some questions in the interest of time.  We will try to come back  to other issues at the end if time allows.  1. Background/Profile Name Contact Information Agency/Division Role/Title Bio Note background, expertise, years with agency, responsibilities Links Relevant links to portal interfaces, organization division, etc. Overview of Practice Summarize what we know about user groups, services provided, user interfaces available, etc. Interview Date/Time    Interviewers   Probe the interviewee for details about himself:  “Please tell us a little bit about yourself and your role at ____________________.  In particular, include a  quick overview of the kind of data/information you work with”.  2. Priorities in Serving End-Users 2a. Identify End‐Users  Interviewer goals: Identify who the users are and how they currently access the data  Today, who are the end‐users for your agency’s data?      Include those who currently use an EIP interface or would benefit from an EIP interface.  Which of these do you consider to be your agencies’ highest‐priority user groups?  Why?  What are (each) user’s goals when interacting with your agency?   Response should not merely consider technological needs  What are user’s goals?  What do they need to accomplish as part of their interactions or relationship? 

  224      Focus on current clients and data.  More forward‐looking responses will be noted and followed‐ up in the next section.  Interviewer note: Focus on current clients and hold discussion of future needs until later. After the  interview, the answers should be arranged in a table similar to the one below.  End-User Type Example Priority Why? What value is this user to the agency? User Goals e.g., A&E contractors, public customers e.g., commuters i.e., rank from 1 to n e.g., time sensitive decisions, legal requirements, public relations concern/customer satisfaction e.g., access contracts, submit bids, addendums, data analysis, real-time traveler information   Interviewer note: Next, we will drill into a discussion of how users get to the data they need. Either  through an EIP or through other approaches (call, email, ftp, etc.)  What is the mechanism for getting this data?  Describe the interface if one exists. E.g., portal name/link, written requests, telephone inquiries  How did this functionality/interface come to be?  Probe on history: what were the factors that made this  happen, e.g., a champion, a new funding stream, user demand  If no interface exists, why not?  What are the limiting factors? E.g., institutional culture (“we’ve always done it this way”), lack of funding  Focus on high‐priority users but may ask about some lower priority scenarios if time allows or if one  is of special interest.  2b. Understand Infrastructure, Processes, Procedures, Successes and Difficulties  INTERVIEWER GOAL: To better understand the front‐end and back‐end systems that support the retrieval  of data/information by users. We will use the focuses listed below and their associated questions to probe  the interviewee about the infrastructure of its current portal, its processes and procedures as well as its  successes and difficulty  Now we would like to get a better understanding of how your group/team manages the data and how it  is used by the different user groups you mentioned previously.  In this part of the interview we will focus on various topics to identify the function and infrastructure,  the processes and procedures that they run, and isolate the successes and difficulty the interviewee  system is encountering, that is, the satisfaction or dissatisfaction of its users.  Search and Discovery  This section of the interview explores the DOT EIP needs for search and discovery. It helps define how  content organization and search will need to be implemented.   Example questions: 

  225       How is search being used on your portal/service?   How many documents are expected to be indexed?   Will searches be done across various types of documents?   How many concurrent search users are expected?   Will use occur at certain times of the day?    How many concurrent users will occur at each time?   How many concurrent searches are expected?   How is document security or access rights affecting searches?    How do you currently implement search and discovery within your DOT documentation?   What are the current issues with search and discovery on your portal/service?  Data and Metadata  This section of the interview will explore the data needs of a DOT EIP.  It will help identify how portal  data needs to be collected, refined, explored, organized and maintained.   Example questions:   What is the average size of the data files you currently have?   What format(s) are the data in? (database, text files, images, video, etc.)   Who is the intended audience of this data?   Who is the intellectual property owner of this data?   Please describe any conditions or constraints placed on the sharing of this data (mandatory  dissemination agreements, confidentiality clauses, etc.)   Please describe briefly the way your data is currently organized: file name conventions, any  existing metadata, units, etc. Is your current system important for you to keep or would you be  willing to adjust to a more universally compatible metadata system?   Where are your files currently stored?  Do you currently have backups of your data?   What uses do you anticipate your data may be put to in the future?   What security measures do you require to control access to your data going forward?   How long would you like your data to be preserved?    What security measures are currently being used to control access to your data?   Are you currently using a taxonomy or ontology to describe your data?  Reliability  This section of the interview explores how reliable DOT EIPs need to be. It will help identify the various  failures and potential failures that portal/services could be subject to and what is needed to minimize  their impact.  Example questions:   What are the ways in which your portal/service can fail to fulfill its functions?   What causes each functional failure?   What happens when each failure occurs?   What are the consequences of each failure?   What should be done to prevent or predict the failure?   What should be done if a suitable proactive task cannot be found?   What is the current reliability of your data stores?   What is the risk of data corruption on your portal/service? 

  226      Business Objectives  This section of the interview focuses on extracting the business objectives and business requirements of  DOT EIPs. It is important to understand objectives and requirements early so as not to make erroneous  assumptions that could affect the accuracy of your future deployments.  Example questions:   What are the current and future business goals of this portal/service? (For example, do you  want to enhance customer service? Increase employee productivity? Reduce the cost of doing  business?)   What are the key priorities for the portal?   What kind of portal/service will you need? (For example, DOT‐to‐DOT (B2B), DOT‐to‐consumer  (B2C), DOT‐to‐enterprise (B2E), or a hybrid?)   Do you want employees to access intranet applications from the Internet?   Who is your target audience (all portal users, employees, or customers)?   What services or functions will the portal/service deliver to users?   Do you need to provide secure access to your portal?  Performance  This section of the interview explores the performance that will be needed to be delivered by DOT EIPs.  Scalability, capacity, and high availability are some of the subjects we will inquire about.  Example questions:   What performance requirements exist?   What high availability requirements exist?   What response times are acceptable?    How many concurrent sessions, or connected users, are likely during peak use?    What is the above‐normal peak time?   How does above‐normal demand affect your portal/service?   What sort of user activity occurs during peak periods?   What use statistics do you have for existing applications?   Do you have web traffic analysis figures for an existing portal?   Are you encountering performance issues when new services are added?   Maintainability  This section of the interview explores how DOT EIPs will need to be administered and maintained. It will  explore how portal/services are currently being managed and will help identify DOT EIP maintainability  requirements.  Example questions:   What are the requirements for backing up and restoring your portal?   How are software patching and security updates deployed on the portal/service?   How is provisioning to be handled?   Will you use delegated administrators for your portal?   Does your organization have processes in place and technical abilities to maintain portal?   Will you train your support organization in maintenance and operations of the portal?   Is your portal/service currently using IaaS or PaaS? 

  227      Front‐End Systems  This section of the interview explores the front‐end systems that will be used for access to DOT EIP. It  will help identify how your users will connect to your portal and what kinds of devices they will use.  Example questions:   How will users access your portal?   What environments do your users have?    Where will they connect from and through what kind of network connection?    What features will your users be required to have? Camera, GPS, microphone?   Will your portal support distribute sensors/Internet of Things systems?  Availability  This section of the interview explores the availability needs of DOT EIPs. It will explore the portal needs  to successfully provide DOT EIP services over time and understand the availability requirements for each  service. Different services might require different levels of availability.  Example questions:   What high availability requirements exist for the portal/service?   What are the requirements for preventing any single point of failure to the portal/service?   Have your portal/service data stores and delivery points, network, and back‐end systems been  designed to be highly available?   How effective is the production support organization?   Does the support staff have the necessary skills, processes, and procedures in place to  adequately maintain the portal/service?   Are you concerned about denial of service attacks?   Do the size and availability requirements of your portal/service warrant the use of clustered  architecture?   Does your organization have the expertise to operate and maintain clusters in the event of  problems?  Security  This section of the interview will help determine the security needs of DOT EIPs.  Example questions:   What type of security threats is your portal/service exposed to?   Do users need to access intranet information through the Internet?   What kind of authentication is required for your portal/service?   What kind of encryption is required for your portal/service?   What are your current security policies?   Do you implement single sign‐on on your portal/service? What are the requirements?   Are there requirements for running SSL internally between servers, and if so, what is the  projected data flow? (This is important to know for deployment.)   What are your current portal/service password policies?   What level of security is required to interact with the portal bid services?    What are the next threats to your portal/services?   How do you deal with current threats? 

  228        Interviewer note: If time allows, ask the questions in this additional focus area   Back‐End Systems  This section of the interview examines the current and future DOT EIP back‐end systems to assess what  will be needed to support the current and future needs of the DOT EIPs. Scalability, performance, and  data center organization are among the factors to be explored.  Example questions:   Does your organization have the technical competence and support organization to deploy and  maintain the portal system?   Are back‐end systems scaled to levels that your portal will need?   Can back‐end systems support concurrent users during normal use? During peak use?   Can your existing back‐end systems support the number of concurrent users expected for your  portal?   How many geographic locations are involved? How does traffic in these areas vary?   What type of redundancy do you have?   How do you manage maintenance and production upgrades?  User Behaviors and Patterns  This section of the interview focuses on extracting information related to the people who will use the  portal. Information such as when they will use the portal, how they will access it, and how they have  used previous portals are keys to identifying new requirements.  Example questions:   How many end users will you have? What is the size of your target audience?   Will users login to the portal at the same time each day? Will they use the portal at work or  somewhere else?   Are users in the same time zone or in different time zones?   How long do you expect the typical user to be connected, or have a valid portal session open?  What use statistics do you have for existing applications?    Do you have web traffic analysis figures for an existing portal?   Is portal use likely to increase over time? Or stay stable?   How fast will your user base grow?  Technical Goals  This section of the interview focuses on how you implement your portal. It is used to define more  precisely target population, performance standards, and other factors related to your goals.  Example questions:   What is your portal’s biggest priority?   How will this application/service be delivered on the portal?   What is your target population?   What performance standard will be necessary? 

  229       What transaction volume do you expect? What transaction volume do you expect during peak  use?   What response time is acceptable during peak use?   What level of concurrency—the number of users who can be connected at any given time—is  necessary?   Should access to the portal be through intranet or Internet?  Future Growth  This section of the interview focuses on assessing what capacity you will need in the future. It will help  establish DOT EIP growth expectations and upcoming changes and the needs to accommodate them.  Example questions:   What is the projected growth for the portal?    How fast will the growth occur?   What new users do you expect?   How will your business objectives change in the upcoming years?   What plans do you have for future content?   What amount of data will your portal manage in the upcoming years?   What new services do you expect to see on your portal in the next 5 years?   How will these new services affect your portal?   Do current IT/ data rules or procedure affect your potential to sustain growth?  Funding  This section of the interview explores the funding and acquisition of DOT EIPs. It will help identify the  ways sustainable DOT EIPs need to be funded, acquired and retired.  Example questions:   What are the current funding challenges of your portal/service?   Describe the acquisition process used for your portal/service.   What metrics or justifications are used to justify portal/service investment or upgrade?   How are your portal/service expenses split between services and capital investment?   Is your current or future funding level allowing you to keep up with your portal/service growth?    3. Idealized Vision   INTERVIEWER GOAL: If there were no financial/technical/resource barriers, what would the  interviewee like to see happen?  What is his/her ideal? What parts of this are feasible and which are  not?  Considering each user group (regardless if there is an existing portal), what needs are not being  addressed well enough or at all?  i.e., what functionality is desirable?  What would you like to see happen to fix this? E.g., more resources, champion, new technologies, better  data  With respect to agency performance (success factors and difficulties noted above), what are your  highest priorities for change?   

  230      What are the obstacles to accomplishing these goals?  What is your ideal approach to sharing data with clients?  If cost were not an option, how would you  change things?   (Let interviewee pick his/her scenario of interest, then probe on others discussed above)  4. Assessment of Feasibility in Next 5 to 10 Years How feasible is each of these desired changes? Why? What has to happen differently?  5. Close-Out Is there anything you would like to add?  Who else can we talk to to learn more?   

Next: Appendix B Full Survey »
Development and Management of Sustainable Enterprise Information Portals Get This Book
×
MyNAP members save 10% online.
Login or Register to save!
Download Free PDF

TRB's National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Web Only Document 241: Development and Management of Sustainable Enterprise Information Portals documents the research approach and methodology to develop NCHRP Research Report 865: Guidance for Development and Management of Sustainable Enterprise Information Portals. The guidance addresses the development and management of effective Enterprise Information Portals (EIPs) at state departments of transportation.

EIPs have become key tools for transportation agencies as they make available information about the transportation system and the agency’s activities. Such EIPs must be curated; that is, there are people responsible for establishing the portal architecture, ensuring the quality of information and data, and maintaining the reliability of access. The report is intended to enhance agency personnel’s understanding of the value, uses, design, and maintenance of EIPs, and the design principles, management practices, and performance characteristics that will ensure that a DOT’s EIPs effectively and sustainably serve its users and the agency’s mission.

A PowerPoint presentation on enterprise information portals (EIPs) for transportation agencies supplements the report. Use case diagrams referenced in the report are available in Visio format through a zip file.

This software is offered as is, without warranty or promise of support of any kind either expressed or implied. Under no circumstance will the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine or the Transportation Research Board (collectively "TRB") be liable for any loss or damage caused by the installation or operation of this product. TRB makes no representation or warranty of any kind, expressed or implied, in fact or in law, including without limitation, the warranty of merchantability or the warranty of fitness for a particular purpose, and shall not in any case be liable for any consequential or special damages.

  1. ×

    Welcome to OpenBook!

    You're looking at OpenBook, NAP.edu's online reading room since 1999. Based on feedback from you, our users, we've made some improvements that make it easier than ever to read thousands of publications on our website.

    Do you want to take a quick tour of the OpenBook's features?

    No Thanks Take a Tour »
  2. ×

    Show this book's table of contents, where you can jump to any chapter by name.

    « Back Next »
  3. ×

    ...or use these buttons to go back to the previous chapter or skip to the next one.

    « Back Next »
  4. ×

    Jump up to the previous page or down to the next one. Also, you can type in a page number and press Enter to go directly to that page in the book.

    « Back Next »
  5. ×

    To search the entire text of this book, type in your search term here and press Enter.

    « Back Next »
  6. ×

    Share a link to this book page on your preferred social network or via email.

    « Back Next »
  7. ×

    View our suggested citation for this chapter.

    « Back Next »
  8. ×

    Ready to take your reading offline? Click here to buy this book in print or download it as a free PDF, if available.

    « Back Next »
Stay Connected!