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Northern Virginia Centric Architecture

Training | Using the Architecture | Planning Process

NoVA Architecture Training Course

2004 Best of ITS Award Finalist: VDOT NOVA Architecture Training Course

The NOVA Architecture Training Program is a finalist for ITS America's 2004 Best of ITS Awards in the category of education and training.

The Virginia DOT Smart Travel Program led the development of a training course after developing the Northern Virginia ITS Architecture to educate stakeholders on the definition of the Architecture, the use of the Turbo Architecture Tool, and the application in the Planning Process. The training employs interactive lecture with hands-on computer exercises. Benefits are an understanding of the Architecture and its tools, but more importantly, it’s the understanding of how to apply this tool in the planning process to further the integration of ITS.

The Virginia Department of Transportation entry for ITS America's 2004 Best of ITS Awards in the education and training category follows:

Best of ITS Award Entry

In 2002, the Virginia Department of Transportation completed the development of a regional ITS architecture for Northern Virginia (NOVA). This ITS architecture identified the transportation systems and their stakeholders that interface with Virginia DOT systems in the region. The development effort involved significant outreach and consensus building activities with stakeholders in Northern Virginia, the District of Columbia, and Maryland.

The ultimate goal of this architecture development was to identify interfaces between Virginia DOT transportation systems and the systems of other agencies. The architecture definition in turn provides a tool to aid ITS planning in the region and to make the development of ITS more efficient and cost effective through coordination and integration. An important part of the Architecture was the identification of how it would be incorporated into the transportation planning process in the region.

ITS Architecture is not a traditional transportation planning tool. To gain the benefits of the NOVA Architecture development, stakeholders in the region would need to be educated about what this new tool could do for them. In order to convey the information in the architecture and to familiarize the stakeholders who will be planning ITS in the region with the use of the architecture in the planning process, Virginia DOT embarked upon a training program to educate regional stakeholders. The training program was targeted at planners and project developers. It focuses on 3 primary areas: the NOVA Architecture definition and website, the Turbo Architecture software tool, and the application of the architecture to the NOVA planning process. The training program is tightly compressed into a one-day session including lecture, demonstration, and hands-on computer exercises.

The training program is structured to provide an overview of the NOVA Architecture content and access through the website. From this point, the content is placed in the context of the Turbo Architecture software tool. This allows the students to become more familiar with the architecture content through exercises manipulating the architecture components with the software. The students are then walked through the definition of a project architecture for application in the NOVA Transportation Planning Process. Each of these steps unveils a new portion of the NOVA Architecture and reinforces the concepts of using it in the planning process.

The first course was conducted in December 2003 with a second scheduled for March 2004. 15 students participated in the first course including operations personnel from state and local organizations, private sector, the toll authority, and the regional MPO. A second training course is scheduled for March of 2004.

As a result of the training, stakeholders have a better understanding of the use of the NOVA Architecture in the planning process as well as how to leverage the architecture definition in the Turbo Architecture software tool. By combining the Turbo Architecture training with an understanding of the architecture in the planning process, the stakeholders are equipped with everything they need to examine and plan ITS in the region in an integrated manner.

Virginia DOT has recognized that the investment in the development of the NOVA ITS Architecture is valuable only if the resulting architecture is used to further ITS deployment. Education and training is vital to realizing the value of the architecture investment made in the NOVA region.

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Disclaimer: This site is designed for transportation and other public agencies in the Northern Virginia region,
not for the general public's use. The official VDOT web site is located at www.virginiadot.org