US Department of Transportation
FHWA PlanWorks: Better Planning, Better Projects
Assessments
PlanWorks assessments help identify barriers to successful project and plan development - and strategies for overcoming them. Use the descriptions of Expediting Project Delivery, Partner Collaboration, or Stakeholder Collaboration to identify when to use each Assessment.Respond to the series of statements about potential barriers and view your results.
PlanWorks assigns a score of Weak, Average, or Strong to each assessment category. Things You Can Do provides strategies that can help you address areas of weakness or improve your current process.How PlanWorks Can Help points you to areas in PlanWorks that may be useful.
You may also take the assessment offline as an individual or as a group.
Partner Collaboration
When to use this assessment:
Transportation plans and projects are at risk when collaboration is missing or ineffective, but specific barriers are often hard to identify. It is easy to misdiagnose the problem and spend valuable resources on the wrong solution. This assessment is intended to pinpoint where process or team dynamics are not supportive of collaboration.
Before using this assessment consider:
Who makes up the team?
Individuals from your agency or partner agencies who participate in decision making.
What are the roles of individual team members?
Each team member will participate in the process as an advisor, observer or decision maker.
What is the process?
The steps that lead toward a final decision and approval. The steps are usually controlled by requirements or common practice.
What is the existing situation?
The current planning process which includes past experiences or pre-existing relationships that may affect how team members engage.
Stakeholder Collaboration
When to use this assessment:
This assessment reflects the viewpoint of those who do not have decision making authority, but clearly have an interest in the outcome. It is useful for a transportation practitioner hoping to improve stakeholder collaboration or as a self-assessment by stakeholders who want to increase their understanding and improve their ability to communicate effectively.
Before using this assessment consider:
Who is a stakeholder?
Anyone with an interest in the outcome of the transportation decision including governmental agencies, non-governmental organizations, community groups and private citizens.
Who is already at the table? Who needs to be at the table? Who is missing?
Ensuring that those stakeholders who want to be at the table and those that need to be at the table are identified and engaged.
What is the process?
Stakeholders may have different contributions in the development of transportation plans or improvement projects.
What is the existing situation?
Past experiences or pre-existing relationships that may affect how stakholders engage and participate.
Expediting Project Delivery
When to use this assessment:
The goal of transportation agencies is to conduct an efficient planning and project development process without sacrificing broad-based support for the outcome. There are many constraints to streamlined project delivery, and this assessment helps identify those that are present or may be anticipated. Corresponding strategies are provided to help overcome these constraints.
Before using this assessment consider:
When should the assessment be taken?
This assessment is useful before a project begins to identify potential challenges or during an active project to diagnose issues.
Who makes up the team?
These are individuals from your agency or partner agencies who participate in decision making.
What are the roles of individual team members?
Each team member will participate in the process as an advisor, observer or decision maker.
What is the existing situation?
Past experiences or pre-existing relationships that may affect how team members and stakeholders engage.