CDOT Performance Data Business Plan - Cambridge Systematics

Appendices
Recognize and Plan for Data Management Costs. Adequate resources must
be provided to collect, store, archive, analyze, and disseminate critical data
elements.
Manage Data as an Asset. Performance data needs to be acquired and
managed as an enterprise asset. If a data element is judged to be a critical
input for the performance measurement process, it needs to have a data
owner, a data element definition, a schedule for updating, and a fixed
amount of precision. The definition must be clear to end users and decisionmakers
and applied consistently throughout the agency. Enterprise-level data
elements must be accessible throughout the data-owning agency and for
authorized uses among business process partners in cooperating local, state,
and Federal agencies.
Require Metadata for the Data. When transmitting data from one group to
another, the use of metadata greatly enhances the information that is
provided about a set of data. There are different formats used for creating
metadata including geo-spatial and non-geo-spatial formats. The purpose of
the metadata is to provide more detailed information about how the data are
defined and their intended use, and to warn users of data limitations and
variability. The use of metadata and metadata standards are extremely
important in ensuring that data are used appropriately for making business
decisions. Another critical piece of information provided in metadata is
contact information about who can provide additional information about the
data when needed. This can eliminate confusion on the part of users, when
trying to determine the best source of data for addressing a business related
question.
Metadata Standards and Formats. The use of metadata standards and
formats helps to facilitate the understanding, characteristics, and usage of
data. Metadata provides such information as data name, size, data type,
where data is located, how it is associated and data ownership (source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metadata). Listed below are some traditional
needs for metadata standards as identified by the Metadata Subcommittee of
the TRB. The Subcommittee identified “Priority Needs for Metadata in
Transportation” in its “Working Document – Research Agenda”, Section 4,
January 15, 2007. Metadata are needed:
– Where data serve a critical function and impacts key decisions;
– Where different data sources need to be combined;
– Where data are published to a large population of users with different
needs;
– Where data value depends on end-user understanding of data quality;
and
– Where data value depends on effectiveness of automated discovery tools.
Data Dictionaries. Data dictionaries contain information about the physical
database tables, such as the names of the tables, the names and attributes of
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