Planning and Program Delivery Process

Program Development

Program Development involves the annual identification and prioritization of projects that support NRO long-range plans. This step in the NRO PPD Process includes three primary activities: Project Development, Annual Strategic Focus Development and Project Prioritization.

Project Development – Candidate ITS projects are proposed by VDOT NRO Management and NRO Planning Staff. NRO Management submits Project Proposals to request project funding in a standard format. A Project Proposal Template has been developed to assist NRO Management with the development of candidate ITS projects. Project Proposals include information that demonstrates how a project supports NRO long range plans. Of particular note, Project Proposals map candidate ITS projects to NRO Strategic Plan goals and objectives.

In addition to new project ideas submitted by NRO Management and Planning Staff, unfunded, partially funded and deferred projects from previous fiscal years are considered. These projects and new project ideas are compiled by NRO Planning staff to form a list of candidate ITS/operations projects.

Activity	Initiator(s) / Actor(s)
Solicit project ideas from staff	NRO Planning Staff
Develop project proposals (using project proposal template) Submit project proposal to Operation Planning staff	NRO Management / NRO Planning Staff
Review project proposals; primarily to verify completeness and consistency with NRO long range plans Prepare draft list of candidate ITS/Operations Projects	NRO Planning Staff

Annual Strategic Focus Development – NRO hosts an annual Operations Planning workshop. During this workshop, NRO Management is asked to weight the goals and objectives presented in the NRO Strategic Plan based on current internal and external trends and influences. The weighted goals and objectives form the NRO Annual Strategic Focus and provide a basis for determining how NRO will allocate resources in the upcoming fiscal year.

Activity	Initiator(s) / Actor(s)
Plan and facilitate NRO Annual Planning Workshop	NRO Planning Staff
Rank goals and objective presented in the NRO Strategic Plan based on internal and external trends and influences	NRO Management

Project Prioritization – Leveraging the Annual Strategic Focus and the mapping of candidate ITS projects to NRO Strategic Plan goals and objectives included in Project Proposals, a prioritization score is determined for each candidate ITS project. The formula below is used to calculate prioritization scores. This formula is evolving and in, in the future, it should include cost/benefit and performance measure factors.

Prioritization Score = [ ∑ G_i * ( ∑ O_ij ) ] / 100 + RF

Where:

G_i = Goal Score (weighted value assigned at the Planning Workshop)

O_ij = Objective Score (weighted value assigned at the Planning Workshop)

RF = Regional Operations Director (ROD) Factor

Prioritization scores are used to prioritize candidate ITS projects.

Activity	Initiator(s) / Actor(s)
Determine prioritization score for candidate ITS/Operations projects Prepare list of prioritized candidate ITS/Operations projects	NRO Planning Staff

For additional detail of the Program Development step of the NRO Program Planning and Delivery Process dealing with Project Concept Development of an ITS Project, click here.