1. Regional Operations Forum How to Organize for Operations
Accelerating solutions for highway safety, renewal, reliability, and capacity
Regional Operations Forum
How to Organize for Operations

2. Organization What are we talking about?
Organize internally for effective conduct of TSM&O mission
Functions, roles, and reporting
Responsibilities, authority, and accountability
Dotted line relationships
External relationships formalized for effective collaboration
Just want to make sure we are all on the same page when we discuss “organizational issues.”
Org charts (as you know) do not tell the whole story, but we will be going there.
Note: With TSM&O, we have internal organizational issues (agency wide and sub-units like regions/districts)
There are also very important external organizational issues with the agency’s partners/collaborators in delivering TSM&O strategies:
PSAs
Local government
MPOs
Data suppliers
Towing and recovery
Out-source contractors doing engineering or other functions

3. What Needs to Be Organized?
Span of control: Align responsibility with authority
Span of influence: Relationship/leverage over support functions
Hierarchy: Manager in position to make trade-offs regarding performance
Ways to coordinate key business process functions
Real-time procedures and protocols
Decentralization—HQ vs. districts roles: Need for “matrix reporting”
Is TSMO truly a program? How to tell?
Discussion item
The next three slides are a basic summary of what we have learned from best practices.
They are useful to take home when you are considering you own organization
Discussion : Ask for comments

4. Question: How Important is Organization Structure?
Group Discussion
(Hint: roles, responsibilities, authority, accountability, reporting, relationships)
Is it obvious to you?
Is it obvious to your non-TSM&O colleagues in the agency?
What are the unique organization issues in TSM&O that are different from highway project development?
Ask for volunteers
Note from previous slide:
Roles
Responsibilities
Authority (esp. re relationships with outside partners)
Accountability (who to whom)
Reporting (what and to whom)
Relationships (vertical and horizontal within TSM&O arena
With support functions (planning, maintenance)

5. Two Extremely Different Org Charts (1st)
This is the MD SHA CHART program
It is set up as a separate statewide division/district reporting directly to the same person as all the districts (the chief engineer, deputy director)

6. Two Extremely Different Org Charts (2nd)
Washington State DOT
TSM&O responsibility at the individual regional (district) level. There are several units that make up the regional, area TSM&O) and traffic engineering
Ops units report to the Regional traffic engineer, who reports to the regional administrator (same level as other major activities)
Not shown: signals maintenance unit also reports to traffic engineer

7. Discussion: Two Extremely Different Org Charts
Both states are considered to have good TSM&O programs.
What are the strengths and weaknesses of each organization?
What would be best suited to your situation?
Questions: what can you tell from an org chart: limited
centralized vs distributed functions/responsibilities (WashDOT includes many of the CHART functions at the Regional level)
reporting relationship at district /at HQ. What does HQ do?
relationships to support functions – planning, maintenance (coordinated at regional level)
importance of dotted lines you can’t see (where is planning in WSDOT)
Often org charts are designed
Discuss: What can’t you see on an org chart:
Hints:
location of capabilities – unique, shared
distribution of authority (and resources) and responsibilities – do they match?
integrating operations into planning STIP, TIP) , maint., new project development

8. Innovative Strategy: Colorado DOT
CDOT Executive Director’s Charge (2013):
Established division of TSM&O, division director
Develop organization structure
Strategic plan
New units: Corridor Management, Incident Management, and Event Management
Staffing assessment (needs, gaps, realign resources)
Balance regional and HQ ops functions
Realigned regional signal ops to report to TSM&O division
Developing operations performance measures

9. Organization as Integral to All Agency Key Capabilities
CAPABILITY LEVELS FOR IMPROVING TSM&O EFFECTIVENESS
DIMENSIONS
Level 1
Performed
Level 2
Managed
Level 3
Integrated
Level 4
Optimizing
Business Processes
Systems & Technology
Performance
Culture
Organization/Workforce
Collaboration
You have seen the CMM matrix
Remember there are dimensions and levels of capability
As you know from the pre-ROF work and day one, organization and staffing (workforce) is one of those dimensions
Question: How is organization/workforce related to the other dimensions
Go to next slide

10. Question: How Do the Other Five Dimensions Affect (or Are Affected by) Organization?
Business Processes
Systems & Technology
Performance
Culture
Collaboration
Identify the interdependence of any other dimension with organization? How do organization and staffing support inhibit improving any of the other dimensions of capability?
Ask for volunteers
Example: performance measurement and management
Who develops the measures
Who deploys the systems to collect data
Who does the analytics
Who uses the measures
Who reports the measures

11. of Capabilities from ROF Participants
Self-Evaluations
of Capabilities from ROF Participants
DIMENSIONS
LEVEL 1
PERFORMED
LEVEL 2
MANAGED
LEVEL 3
INTEGRATED
LEVEL 4
OPTIMIZING
Planning & Programming 5 7 3
Systems &
Technology 4 6
Performance
Measurement 1 9
Culture
Organization/
staffing 2
Collaboration 11
Need to insert number of scores in this table before the module

12. Levels of Organizational Capability— An Exercise
What did you indicate as your agency’s current level of organizational capability?
What will it take to get to the next level of capability?
Note: You will also have an opportunity to discuss this with your own state colleagues on Friday morning.
Note to instructor: Before this module is delivered , the instructor should consult the pre-ROF CMM survey and compile the level designations and enter them into the next slide
You may wish to aggregate them by agency, but it really doesn’t matter for purposes of this exercise

13. Staffing Issues
Does TSM&O have unique staffing requirements —professional/nonprofessional/field
What are the needed core capabilities, i.e., the KSAs—management and technical?
How can they be acquired?
“Organizations are staffed”
TSM&O is new. There is limited technical training, no special degrees and the needed capabilities are not widely understood
See questions on slide – discuss each question
Then proceed to next slide

14. Staffing Considerations
Position specifications (KSAs) and grade levels for key technical capabilities
Acquiring the needed capabilities (engineering vs. operations:
On the job training (who does it?)
Outsourcing (if staff slots limited)
Stealing (from other DOTs, consultants?)
Recruitment and retention (external competition)
Grade levels—are they attractive?
Conditions of employment? ($$ & career opportunities)
Training and co-training provided by …?
Here are some considerations in staffing up
Discuss each briefly
Hints
Where are you getting your staff (mostly in-house – are the positions attractive – to CEs, to others?
Are staff grades, compensation and career opportunities competitive with other parts of the agency

15. Outsourcing: Threat or Opportunity?
What functions could be outsourced?
Engineering and planning (ConOps, architecture, ITS systems design)
TMC staffing
Traffic data and analysis/modeling
ITS device/communications/systems maintenance
Safety service patrol
Construction inspection
How can you best manage performance?
What core capacities must be in-house?
What are you doing and why?
There is definitely a trend
It seems to be driven by:
limited staff slots
time for new hires
lack of in-house technical skills
Discussion:
What else?
What are the advantages/disadvantages, problems?
What are the core capacities that must be retained in-house?

16. Discussion and Homework to Take Back
At what level do you think your agency is currently?
Why did you select that level?
What steps might be taken to get to the next level?
What are the staffing challenges for TSM&O within your organization?
Question: what are key actions to get to the next level as implied by the criteria
These may be “guesses” from those at the average level or ideas based on experience from those above the average level
It might be useful to track this discussion for reference during later slides

17. Main Points – Takeaway
TSM&O has unique organizational requirements (vs. legacy)
Includes functions not easily accommodated in legacy organizations
No one best organization given differences in size/number of regions in state, scale of program
Commitment to real-time customer service from leadership and other units
Management recognition of special staffing needs—technical, managerial, and collaborative
Criteria for effective organizations
Link between responsibility and authority for key functions
All units in agency need to understand/support real-time functions
Reporting with accountability to monitor effectiveness

18. Resources
SHRP 2 L06: Institutional Architecture to Improve Systems Operations and Management
SHRP 2 L31: CEO/Executive Level Presentation on TSM&O and accompanying guide book
AASHTO Systems Operations and Management Guidance online tool:
Creating an Effective Program to Advance Transportation System Management and Operations Primer (FHWA-HOP )
The Primer in the last bullet provides a really good, succinct way to communicate a lot of what we have talked about this week relative to agency capability maturity and the concept of the CMM, and it highlights how to advance to next steps. We would encourage you to download this and share with some of your partners back at your home office to start some of the organization discussions.