DATA BUSINESS PLANS AND GOVERNANCE PROGRAMS - ALIGNING TRANSPORTATION DATA TO AGENCY STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES

摘要

The Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21) established a performance3 based transportation program to address safety, asset infrastructure, traffic congestion, the efficiency of the transportation system and freight movement, the environment, and delays in project delivery. Transportation data is an essential ingredient in addressing these challenges. Data is a valued asset, but at the same time carries a significant risk – bad data can lead to ineffective planning and ultimately to poor agency business decisions. An effective transportation data business plan coupled with institutional data governance can mitigate the risk by providing an approach for delivering comprehensive, quality data. Better data provides better information, which in-turn results in informed decisions. A data business plan with an established data governance environment can lead to proactive rather than reactive decisions on data programs. Many state Departments of Transportation have embraced and are beginning to apply concepts and best practices in overall data management. However, the terms and application of them are not mainstreamed and are not assimilated into the transportation agency culture. This paper provides the context for data management, data governance, and data stewardship; a business need for establishing data governance within a transportation agency; the key features to be considered for a data business plan; approaches to developing a data governance program, and finally a process for evaluating data programs and the data governance environment.