2.1: Prioritizing Open Government Goals, Outcomes, Strategies, and Initiatives

Conduct a joint SWOT analysis of the DOT’s readiness for further transparency, participation and collaboration.

Other Information:

To assist in developing the plan, the Technology, Culture, and Policy Working Groups conducted a joint SWOT analysis of the DOT’s readiness for further transparency, participation and collaboration. A SWOT analysis is a strategic planning tool used to assess the internal and external environment in which organizations operate. It identifies an organization’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) in relation to a specific program or goal. In response to identified issues, the working groups also formulated methods for taking advantage of existing opportunities and addressing potential challenges. The following are the DOT’s critical technology, policy, and cultural challenges that were noted during the SWOT analysis. Also included are strategies for mitigating risks posed by these issues. • Culture and Policy Challenge: Long-term improvement in the DOT work culture towards more public openness and transparency requires a sustained commitment, robust change management, and clear guidance to employees. o Solution: The DOT will evaluate the extent to which Open Government principles and activities can be integrated into the existing governance structure. The DOT Open Government Executive Steering Group will advise senior leadership on how to ensure continued adoption of Open Government principles. We will explore developing a change management plan that will increase communication, outreach, and training to promote openness. A unified Open Government policy will identify the objectives of the Open Government initiative and set forth the guidance on how employees can be more open, while managing risks. Employee training will emphasize the messages in the policy. • Technology and Policy Challenge: Many of the DOT’s work processes and technologies (e.g., records management, policy, software) will need to be modernized, and will require significant resources. o Solution: The DOT will prioritize the most important processes or technologies to modernize first, and develop a longer-term plan for remaining work processes and tools. • Technology and Policy Challenge: Releasing DOT data sets will require executive commitment to ensure that processes are formalized to review, prioritize, and post data for publication. o Solution: The DOT has established a Data.gov working group, which will be formalized and advise senior leadership on data transparency strategies, policies and processes for releasing public data. The SWOT analysis also identified several strengths that DOT can leverage in meeting the goals of Open Government: • The DOT has valuable data sets on hand that can be released to the public. • The DOT is already using a variety of Web 2.0 technologies and can expand its use of these technologies to further engage citizens. • The DOT can expand training on existing knowledge management tools to encourage transparency and collaboration. • The DOT has been a leader in several Open Government-related areas for years including e-Rulemaking and performance management transparency. As a result of this process, we developed the following high-level goals for the DOT’s Open Government initiative: • Increase Agency Transparency and Accountability; • Apply Citizen Knowledge through Participation to Government Service; • Encourage Collaboration and Innovation; and • Institutionalize an Open DOT Culture. To meet these goals, DOT identified many specific objectives. The DOT prioritized these objectives by applying a filter that considered criteria such as: whether or not there are critical foundational activities that must be completed within the next two years; whether or not those foundational activities can begin relatively quickly; whether or not the activities associated with the objective were requested, either by employees or non-DOT individuals and entities; and whether or not the activities associated with the objective area have already been assigned owners and resources. Objectives that were determined to be high priority based on this filter are considered phase one objectives and are listed in the green boxes in Figure 5. Phase one objectives will be the focus of the DOT Open Government related work over the next two years, as displayed in Figure 3, earlier in this chapter. Phase two objectives will require more maturity in foundational areas and thus may be pursued in years two to five, as the foundation for openness at DOT develops. The phase one objectives for DOT’s Open Government initiative are: • Present in a clear manner DOT information about programs and objectives; • Continue to release DOT data in a timely manner by proactively making it available online in consistent, open formats, while assuring accuracy and protecting privacy, security, and confidentiality; • Maintain commitment to collecting and responding to public input on DOT policies and programs in innovative ways; • Enhance collaboration with other Federal agencies, the private sector, and other non-government organizations in providing mission-related services; • Encourage commitment to Open Government principles at all levels; and • Encourage a cross-modal, interdisciplinary, collaborative, and engaged workforce through enhanced communication, governance, and guidance regarding Open Government tools and programs. The phase two objectives for DOT’s Open Government initiative may include: • Continuing to create opportunities for public participation in problem identification and idea generation; • Enhancing efforts to stimulate innovation from DOT data and information; and • Maintaining commitment to data-driven DOT decision making, by increasing employee awareness of DOT data and information. To make progress in the phase one objectives in the next two years, the DOT has identified activities on which to focus its efforts. Figure 6 lists the strategy milestones and Open Government-related initiatives that will be prioritized in the next two years. The dark blue lines in Figure 6 designate activities that are foundational. These activities, once completed, are considered milestones of the policy, change management, data transparency, and innovative methods strategies. They are discussed in more detail in Chapter 3. The light blue lines in Figure 6 designate Open Government initiatives that have owners and resources assigned. Initiatives that are ongoing are designated by an arrow whereas initiatives with completion timelines are designated by a vertical end. These initiatives are described in more detail in Chapter 4. It is important to note that there are more long-term initiatives and milestones that are not listed above in Figure 6. Table 3 shows all the strategies and initiatives that are being considered to meet the phase objectives. All of these strategies and initiatives are described in the following chapters of this plan. Strategies will be updated for the next revision of the DOT Open Government Plan in two years. Also, in preparation for that revision, the DOT will re-evaluate its initiatives and determine what is required to meet the phase two objectives.

Indicator(s):

Indicator:1

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