Factors Influencing Adoption of Information Technologies for Public Transportation Project Inspection: A WSDOT Case Study

Abstract

This paper presents a case study of the organizational change process associated with the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) year-long research program that implemented a cloud-based mobile project inspection application to 18 project engineering offices (PEO) across the state. Ultimately, four out of the 18 PEOs decided to adopt the new technology. Data from semi-structured interviews and a user study conducted two months after implementation are used to identify organizational change strategies used by WSDOT, and how those relate to ideas from the general literature on change management. The loss of upper management program leaders, inadequate communication and training to prepare personnel for the change, and policy and procedural uncertainties in integrating the change with other systems and operations were found to be factors that may have influenced the outcome of the program. While this paper focuses on one DOT’s efforts, other DOTs may have similar organizational structures and implementation efforts, and the findings and lessons learned could serve as a representative model for how such implementation might best be accomplished in a DOT and how that might differ from traditional change management guidance.