Knowledge Resources

During the SWIFT project, a number of institutional issues were encountered that affected the deployment of project. One issue related to a lack of ITS standards and protocols. The lesson learned was as follows:

• Modify ITS standards and protocols so that both public and private entities understand and agree on their contents.

During the SWIFT project, confusion about standards and protocols affected the project. For example, some team members felt that early knowledge about and understanding of ITS device message protocols might have saved development time. One public sector member felt that when the project became aware of a protocol that specified up to 1,200 different traffic messages for a traveler information system, it “saved three (3) months” of development effort. A private sector partner, on the other hand, felt that the large number of message types in the ITS protocol caused development within his company to take longer. Such concern about standards and protocol would have been reduced if there had been early knowledge of existing standards during the system planning and project definition process.