Transcript Some possible slides for Paula’s present.

Performance Measurement and Reporting:
Washington State’s Experience
Managing for Results
AASHTO Transportation CEO Workshop
October 23, 2009
Paula Hammond, Secretary of Transportation
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Washington State Department of
Transportation Profile
WSDOT owns, manages and maintains:
Highways
• 20,000 state highway lane miles (carry 86 million vehicle
miles / day)
• 225 lane miles of a planned 320-mile HOV system
• More than 3,600 bridges and structures
Ferries
Transit support
• Commute programs support nearly 800,000
commuters statewide
• Vanpool program includes more than 2,650 vans (largest public
vanpool fleet in the nation)
Aviation
• 17 general aviation airports
• 22 ferry vessels, 20 terminals and 500 daily sailings
(carry 23 million passengers / year)
Passenger rail
• Partner in Amtrak Cascades state passenger rail (carries
over 700,000 passengers / year)
Freight rail
• Grain Train (runs 89 grain cars)
• 1,432 miles of short-line rail
Total 2009-11 Biennial Budget of nearly $5.8 billion
• $4.4 billion (09-11) Capital Budget, over 900 active
projects, currently delivering the largest infrastructure
program in the state’s history
• $1.4 billion (09-11) Operating Budget
(includes Ferries and Highway maintenance)
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WSDOT is meeting the challenges of:
• Additional demand – population
and economic growth
• Keeping up with preservation
and maintenance needs
• Making the transportation
system safe for travelers
• Operating the system well
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WSDOT’s Vision:
The Transportation System of the Future Must Be …
Reliable
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Improved travel times for drivers
Better reliability and choices for commuters and increased intercity service
More efficient freight movement across state and in and out of our ports
Responsible
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Safer roads, and fewer fatalities and serious injuries
Cost effective asset maintenance and preservation
Highways, transit and ferries provide users integrated travel options
Increased special needs transportation to provide access for jobs and lifeline services
Sustainable
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Cleaner air and water
Strategic and balanced approach to climate change
Predictable funding and affordable improvements and operations
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What Is Performance Measurement and
Performance Management?
FHWA: “Use of statistical evidence to determine
progress towards specific organizational and system
objectives”*
WSDOT’s Working Definition:
– An opportunity to tell your story
– An opportunity to better manage your agency
and operate state transportation systems
* http://ops.fhwa.dot.gov/perf_measurement/fundamentals/index.htm
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Performance Measurement Driving Forces
– Federal, gubernatorial, and legislative mandates
– Good management practice
– Internal agency initiatives
– Strategic and business planning
– Competition for resources
– Investment decision-making
– Public and political expectations for accountability
– National benchmarking and comparisons (e.g. Urban Mobility
Report; Council of State Governments; Governing Magazine)
– Performance-based federal aid program/reauthorization
– Federal economic stimulus spending and reporting
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Benefits of Performance Management
– Enhancing productivity and service delivery
– Identifying and fixing problems and learning from best practices
– Understanding issues at a system level
– Improving communication internally and externally
– Cross-program coordination – removing silos
– Demonstrating program effectiveness
– Making the case for funding of unmet needs
– Allocating resources based on performance
– Motivating staff and celebrating accomplishments
– Enhancing public support and agency credibility
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WSDOT’s Lessons Learned
Commit to Transparency and Accountability as
a Fundamental Management Principle
WSDOT’s 2009-15 Strategic Plan:
“We will be accountable to the public
for all of our challenges and
achievements by providing clear and
concise information to the people of
Washington, elected officials, and
our many other transportation
partners.”
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WSDOT’s Lessons Learned
Regularly Measure and Communicate Performance
• Start with the highest priorities – don’t try to cover
everything – build on success over time
• Use candor and transparency: “The good, the bad
and the ugly”– no exceptions.
• Use “Plain Talk” – language people can
understand
• Combine quantitative and narrative reporting –
Performance Journalism – “Telling the Story”
• Make reports easily accessible to the public and
the media
• Quality control the data and analysis
• Be current and timely
• Train staff
• Avoid using measures to penalize
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WSDOT’s Lessons Learned
No Measure is Perfect
Key questions to ask:
– Why this measure? What is its purpose? How will it be used?
– Will the measure contribute to management and investment
decisions, or help communicate performance to decision makers
and the public? Or is it “measuring for measuring sake?”
– Who is the audience?
– Is the measure easily understood?
– How much can the agency influence performance?
– Is the data accurate, replicable? Can it be used to track trends?
– Do the benefits of measuring outweigh the costs of collecting and
analyzing data?
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WSDOT’s Lessons Learned
Choose the Right Measures
– “Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.” Start now, describe
measure limitations, and develop more robust measures over time.
Measure development is incremental, iterative, and evolutionary
– Natural tension between “keep it simple” and the multitude of
measures that may be necessary to manage programs and fully “tell
the story”
– Communicating to broader audiences usually requires higher-level,
simpler, and more general measures
– More detailed program-level “sub-measures” should logically link to
higher level measures in a way that can be clearly explained and
understood.
– Avoid focusing only on measures just because they’re available (low
hanging fruit) if they’re not used to manage – doing so may lead to
unintended policy and investment consequences.
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WSDOT’s Lessons Learned
Example: Capital Project Delivery
High level measure
used to drive overall
performance and
communicate to the
Governor, Legislature,
and public
Achievement of
project milestones
Percent of
capital projects
delivered on-time /
on-budget
Number of bidders
on contracts
Sometimes a single,
high-level measure can
effectively drive
performance and
communicate results…
Contract award
amount compared
to engineer’s
estimate
Sub-measures
used for project
management and
internal decision
making
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WSDOT’s Lessons Learned
Example: Pavement Condition
Structural &
Functional
Performance
(rutting, cracking,
smoothness)
…and sometimes there is no single
high-level measure that can
effectively drive performance.
Multiple measures are needed to
ensure optimal investment decisions.
If a single measure is used, its
limitations should be clearly
acknowledged
Pavement
Condition
Safety
Performance
(surface friction,
accident rates)
Economic
Performance
(lowest
life-cycle cost)
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WSDOT’s Lessons Learned
Build Performance Measures Over Time
Examples of WSDOT’s existing
performance measurement topics
– Project delivery
– Highway safety
– Highway maintenance & operations
– Congestion management
– Environmental compliance
– Asset management (bridges,
pavement, ferries, etc.)
– Freight rail
Topics requiring new performance
measures – the work continues
– ARRA / economic stimulus project
reporting
– Climate change
– Freight mobility
– System (state-local) mobility
performance
– Project effectiveness (“before &
after” analysis)
– Passenger rail
– Ferries operations
– Workforce safety
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Summary of Lessons Learned
• Start now - expand and refine over time
• Quality control the data and the analysis
• Tell the story behind the measures. Use narrative reporting to
supplement data
• Tailor measures to the audience.
• Actively use measures and apply them to policy and management
decisions. Using measures leads to better data quality and will
support a more effective performance management culture within
the agency
• Commit to performance measurement, transparency, and
accountability as a management principle
• Performance measurement can foster improved management,
investments, and efficiency. It can’t make up for insufficient funding.
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