Improving Business Processes for More Effective Transportation Systems Management and Operations

Chapter 2. Business Process Development

Lack of effective business processes is often at the core of any operational challenge. Keeping in mind the institutional focus of business processes—such as strategic and program planning, programming, contracting, procurement, and project management activities—it may not always be obvious that an operations challenge is largely attributed to gaps in, or lack of, effective business processes. Strong business process development relies on two important actions: 1) Identifying Business Process Issues, and 2) Engaging the Right Stakeholders.

2.1 Identifying Business Process Issues

Agencies can begin identifying key business process issues in several ways. One effective way is asking the right questions. Capability maturity model frameworks for various Transportation Systems Management and Operations (TSMO) approaches and strategies⁴ can help provide prompting questions to focus the discussion on business processes, including their strengths, weaknesses, and gaps. Chapters 3 through 7 of this primer also provide the reader with some example business process issues.

Another method of identifying key business process issues involves analyzing operational activities and identifying weaknesses or gaps where potential business process issues could affect their effectiveness. For this kind of analysis, discussions typically focus on a specific problem with incidents or work zone operations, road weather management, information sharing, or other operational issue and associated "breakdowns" in effective operations. These issues can be addressed as part of an after action review or debrief. Getting the right stakeholders involved in these analyses will provide valuable information about different TSMO partner perspectives, activities, and potential constraints.

As part of these discussions, key questions should be asked that can help identify various issues and whether or not a business process could be improved to help address them. Table 1 provides examples these types of questions, in the context of various stages of an event response. At each stage in this example, various business process issues and considerations are presented that could enable more effective operations actions (right column). This example uses response steps that would be consistent with responses to an incident or weather event.

Table 1. Examples of business process-related questions.

Example Event-driven Operations Actions	Response Actions	Example Business Process Issues Impacting Operation
Visual identification Notification from other entity Large-scale weather event with advanced notice	Agency Notified of Event	Are there policies or directives that outline responsibilities for major events? Are lines of communication among agencies clearly established? Does the agency have access to available real-time incident/event/threat information?
Implement standard operating procedures Initiate other notifications Mobilize response teams Activate traveler alert systems and processes	Initiate Response	Are there documented Standard Operating Procedures? Do partners know their roles and responsibilities? Have agencies trained together for response strategies?
Monitor status of response Monitor impacts on transportation network Implement or adjust operational strategies as needed Initiate other notifications	Monitor Event Status and Update Response	Do partner agencies have access to response status? Are processes in place to escalate response levels? Who is authorized to request additional resources?
Notify of event conclusion Update system entries Adjust operating system to normal operating status Remove or update traveler alert notification Document and archive event and response details	Event Conclusion and Restoration	Are there established processes for after-event debriefings? How are event or response details captured and shared? Is there a process to review and update Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs)? How are performance metrics updated?

Visualizing steps from an operations standpoint can identify the synergies between operations activities and business processes that can enable or improve those activities. Involving multiple stakeholders and their perspectives in the discussion can raise awareness of issues that might not otherwise have been identified within traditional operations roles or functions.

An important aspect in identifying business processes is that the business process issues or weaknesses can often be addressed in a cost-effective manner; process improvement does not always translate into capital expenditure. The following are examples of relatively cost-effective process improvements:

• Establish a new line of communication among partners.
• Develop a new agreement.
• Modify construction review processes to include operations representatives.
• Revise operating procedures.
• Increase collaboration with agency and metropolitan planning organization (MPO) functions to integrate TSMO priorities into established agency and regional programming processes.

More effort-intensive business process changes would include the following:

• Develop a TSMO strategic or implementation plan.
• Revise procurement or contracting language.
• Implement a performance management program that aligns with goals and objectives and with budgeting and resource allocation processes

2.2 Engaging the Right Stakeholders

Once specific issues are identified at the operations level, engaging the right stakeholders is important. The specific stakeholders to get involved depend on the specific issues that need to be addressed.

Business process stakeholders may be outside of the typical operations stakeholders and partners and could include representatives from any of the following groups:

• Information technology
• Construction and project development
• Maintenance
• Safety
• Capital program planning and project development
• Statewide, regional, and metropolitan planning
• Long-range planning
• Traffic engineering and control
• Traffic Incident Management (could be multiagency)
• Legal and policy
• Human resources
• Procurement
• External partners for operations (for example, neighboring agencies, enforcement and emergency service providers, or other affected agencies)
• Contractors that serve in key roles
• System vendors or operators
• Venue managers (for Planned Special Events)
• Others to be determined based on priority issues and outcomes

In many cases, these stakeholders will require focused outreach to engage them in discussions that will influence change or modify supportive business processes. The following are some strategies that can help engage nontraditional stakeholders:

• Initiate one-on-one conversations to get them involved, state the case and issues, and explain why they are important to the conversation and outcomes.
• Convene a workshop that involves the appropriate stakeholders to allow multiple perspectives to be shared and partners to collaborate on specific actions, strategies, and next steps. This will also help identify any additional constraints and promote discussion on how to mitigate or resolve those constraints.
• Follow up on issues discussed, action items identified, and next steps. Effectively document issues and action items to help keep all stakeholders focused on the issues and required actions, particularly for those business processes that might take some time to modify or resolve.

Chapters 3 through 7 focus on business processes within several core TSMO strategies, particularly for managing nonrecurring congestion. Operations activities—and their supportive business processes—vary widely from region to region or from state to state. The examples provide a starting point for agencies to examine their operational processes and potential business process improvements. Case studies provide examples of successful business process changes initiated in other areas, as well as the impetus for examining the need for changing or modifying business processes. Chapters 8 and 9 provide helpful resources for agencies to use as part of their business process improvement strategies.