Organization-Wide Measures

For many DOTs, performance in program-wide areas of vital importance, such as system preservation or safety, is routinely measured using organization-wide performance measures based on data collected across the agency. Some measures may be reported using "dashboards" or other graphic techniques that provide evidence at a glance of whether performance is satisfactory, and how it varies from region to region, or over time. Other measures may offer more nuanced insights on individual aspects of overall performance, allowing managers to "drill down" from highest-level dashboard measures to understand the factors influencing performance. As agency-wide adoption of CSS principles by DOTs increases, the potential role for organization-wide CSS performance measures is growing. They enable managers to look beyond individual projects and gain feedback on overall progress towards agencywide adoption of CSS principles.

Among the strongest candidates for scrutiny using organization-wide performance measures is tracking of the staff and consultant mindset changes that must occur for CSS to be successful in DOTs. As DOTs' efforts to integrate CSS into project delivery mature, new approaches to organization-wide measurement of CSS performance are likely to make sense.

Some organization-wide measures may simply aggregate a project-level measure across many projects, others may address non-project specific issues. This section provides a starting point for DOTs to develop their own organizationwide performance measurement approaches.

Organization-wide Measures - Key Characteristics
- Used to assess performance of entire organization
- Fewer in number than project-level measures
- Address both processes and outcomes
- Independent of individual