This report describes how risk management and data management may be used by transportation agencies to support management target-setting for performance-based resource allocation. As the final product of a second phase of NCHRP Project 08-70, 'Target-setting methods and data management to support performance-based resource allocation by transportation agencies' this report supplements NCHRP Report 666 published in 2010. Transportation agencies at all levels of government are embracing performance measurement to improve agency efficiency and accountability. Setting performance targets generally entails balancing competing objectives and dealing with political implications in a context of uncertainties about economic conditions, fiscal constraints, climate conditions, customer demands, and more. Good data on the transportation system and its performance provides the information managers need to set targets, but good management depends on clear understanding of the risks that future conditions will differ significantly from what today’s best information suggests. Performance targets and consequent resource-allocation decisions established with such understanding are more likely to ensure that the agency and the transportation system perform well. This report presents advice and illustrative case studies, in the form of primers, on using risk management and data management practices in support of performance-based resource allocation, and specifically performance-target setting. The information will be useful to senior agency managers seeking to develop and improve their performance-management practices. (Author/publisher)
Abstract