Business Process Modeling for the Virginia Department of Transportation: A Demonstration with the Integrated Six-year Improvement Program and the Statewide Transportation Improvement Program

About the report:

This effort demonstrates business process modeling to describe the integration of particular planning and programming activities of a state highway agency. The motivations to document planning and programming activities are that: (i) resources for construction projects are used effectively; (ii) employees know where projects are in their construction life cycles and how projects may have been changed; (iii) the time of agency employees is used effectively; and (iv) the employees are working together to complete transportation projects in a reasonable time. The effort adopts the IDEF modeling capability of the BPWin software (also known as the AllFusion Process Modeler). IDEF modeling encourages consistent documentation of who generates what information, products, services; for whom; how; and for what reasons. Across the agency, the modeling is useful in prioritizing processes for change and maintenance. The modeling empowers employees at all levels, makes institutional knowledge relevant and accessible, and removes bottlenecks. It also encourages the development of integrated systems along functional lines, including administration, engineering, and operations, and focuses agency personnel on the good rather than the perfect system. Highway agencies have multiple business processes that can benefit from an integrated description of business and technology in process models. For example, the information technology division of a large highway agency maintains and develops around sixty software applications at any one time. Business process modeling helps the division improve their allocation of resources and priorities to these applications. This document provides the purpose and scope of the effort, the method behind IDEF modeling and the AllFusion software, the results and discussion of the effort, the deliverables, and the recommendations for future work. Twelve appendices provide the technical results. The authors identify some significant benefits that can be realized by an implementing agency in exchange for modest costs.

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