NCHRP Implementation Support Program. Building Capacity for Self-Assessment of Data Effectiveness for Agency Business Needs

State transportation agencies and other transportation agencies produce, store, manage, and use substantial amounts of diverse data and information to support their transportation-system performance management, project delivery, asset management, public safety, environmental protection, and other business areas. Periodic assessment of their data’s costs and effectiveness, and management practices in supporting the agency’s business needs is a means for ensuring that their data are relevant, current, reliable, secure, well documented, and available for analysis and decision making; and that duplications of data collection efforts are avoided. NCHRP research produced a guidebook, NCHRP Report 814: Data to Support Transportation Agency Business Needs: A Self-Assessment Guide, to help state agencies and metropolitan planning organization decision makers and data practitioners to evaluate and improve their data quality and data management practices. The guide was published in 2015. Supplemental materials produced in the underlying research—a PowerPoint executive presentation, a flyer outlining the data self-assessment process, and spreadsheet tools to assist agency implementation of a self-assessment process—were intended to facilitate application of the practices presented in the guidebook. The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) collaborated with the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) to sponsor two workshops—in December 2017 and January 2018 engaging 12 states and one metropolitan agency—to encourage dissemination and application of the principles and practices presented in NCHRP Report 814 and the supplemental materials. An objective of the workshops was to encourage agencies to apply and demonstrate the benefits of these principles and practices and thereby attract other agencies to undertake data self-assessment. The Data Self-Assessment Workshops: Final Report documented this effort. (See Special Note B.) The workshop participants indicated that agencies at current levels of maturity in data management need assistance—beyond that provided by NCHRP Report 814—to effectively adapt and apply the principles and practices presented in the self-assessment guide. Many of the participating agencies expressed interest in follow-up activities that could provide such assistance tailored to the specific characteristics and perceived needs of each agency. The objectives of this research are to encourage dissemination and application of the principles and practices presented in NCHRP Report 814: Data to Support Transportation Agency Business Needs: A Self-Assessment Guide by (1) developing a plan to deliver professional services support for selected agencies undertaking to apply the principles and practices presented in NCHRP Report 814; (2) preparing guidance and communication materials, supplemental to NCHRP Report 814, on preparation for and support of the conduct of a data self-assessment; (3) providing limited assistance to each agency during the data self-assessment; and (4) documenting effective practices of participating agencies that could be transferrable to other agencies for adopting principles and practices for assessing and improving their data adequacy to support agency business needs. Upon completion of this research project, each participating agency should have developed and at least initiated action to follow a management roadmap for implementing unified, enterprise-wide governance of transportation system data self-assessment.

• Record URL:
  http://apps.trb.org/cmsfeed/TRBNetProjectDisplay.asp?ProjectID=4669

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Active
• Funding: $220000
• Contract Numbers:

  Project 20-44(12)

• Sponsor Organizations:

  National Cooperative Highway Research Program

  Transportation Research Board
  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001

  American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO)

  444 North Capitol Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001

  Federal Highway Administration

  1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Project Managers:

  Lemer, Andrew

• Performing Organizations:

  Spy Pond Partners, LLC

  Arlington, MA  United States 
• Principal Investigators:

  Harrison, Frances

  Duke, William

• Start Date: 20201007
• Expected Completion Date: 20220209
• Actual Completion Date: 0

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Data management; Data quality; Evaluation and assessment; Governance; Guidelines; Metropolitan planning organizations; State departments of transportation; Training
• Subject Areas: Administration and Management; Data and Information Technology; Highways; Planning and Forecasting;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01703370
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Transportation Research Board
• Contract Numbers: Project 20-44(12)
• Files: TRB, RIP
• Created Date: Apr 29 2019 3:04PM