Develop a Knowledge Management System for TxDOT Pavement-Related Corporate Knowledge Project summary

摘要

The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) experienced serious losses of expertise on October 1, 1993, and September 1, 2003, when legislated retirement incentives were offered. A total of almost 2,000 of the agency's most experienced employees left employment on those two dates alone. While those two dates were particularly devastating to TxDOT corporate knowledge, the agency loses hundreds of career employees each and every year. The need for a method of capturing and organizing corporate knowledge, particularly that knowledge gained by employees through years of experience, was recognized by TxDOT. Forensic pavement analysis is a core function of every department of transportation. Excellence in this technical area allows selection of proper and cost-effective pavement rehabilitation options, with potential annual benefits to the department easily measuring in the millions of dollars. This was the technical focus area selected by TxDOT for development of the agency's initial formal knowledge management system (KMS). Just prior to the initiation of this research project, TxDOT selected a proprietary software package for its learning content management system. The selected software product is designed to store and manage both an agency's training program and its corporate knowledge, thereby providing support to both training efforts and general agency operations. TxDOT has implemented the procured software and calls the system i-Way, housed on TxDOT's Intranet site. The research team was asked to utilize functionalities of i-Way to build a formal KMS for TxDOT, supplying it with state-of-the-art knowledge and information regarding pavement forensics.