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Training for the ITSFM system is available for all Florida Districts and Regional Partners, and is highly encouraged. Training programs have been established for the maintainer/technician, the ITS Engineering staff, and the Transportation managers. The training will provide two very important functions:
This training is provided to each District free of charge and ITSFM Regional Partner users (city/county/etc.) are eligible to participate in the District training sessions. |
Training for the ITSFM consists of two functional categories: Manager/ITS Engineer Training and Maintainer Training. Those that complete the half-day Manager/ITS Engineer training will receive ITSFM access as a Viewer user. Those that complete the 2.5 day Maintainer training will receive ITSFM access as a Maintainer user. Access to the ITSFM is granted solely to those that have written authorization from the facility owner (District or Regional Partner), successfully completed one or both of these training sessions and submitted the requisite evaluation form. Upon completion of the training and receipt of the evaluation, the FDOT Central Office will provide user names and passwords for ITSFM access and a certificate of completion.
The Manager/ITS Engineer Training Session
It is important for facility owner lead personnel to participate in the half-day training/workshop designed to provide a good understanding of the ITSFM’s capabilities and limitations. More importantly, the half-day session was specifically designed for managers and ITS engineers so they will have a clear understanding of what the operation and maintenance team will learn and how they will use the system. In addition, managers and ITS engineers will learn about the requirements and benefits of the system as it pertains to the staff, to management, and to the entire state. During the course of this half-day training participants will learn basic functions and participate in hands-on exercises that demonstrate the utility of the ITSFM’s reporting functions - functions that will be dependent upon the accuracy of facility owner data and the commitment of the maintainer staff. At the conclusion of this session, management will be asked to address the students of the 2.5 day maintainer course so that they may understand the reasons for their training as well as management’s support for this training exercise.
The Maintainer Training Session
The 2.5 day maintainer training will not be like many other training courses because this effort requires 100% attention and 100% participation. This translates to no cell phones or texting, and also no computer access during the course except for the tightly focused hands-on exercises. There will be no access to email during the training session module presentations. By conducting the training in this manner, the participants will each have the confidence and well tested capability to utilize the ITSFM to full capacity immediately after the class is completed. The instructors are committed to making the interactive training session fun, valuable and educational – in that order.
Due to the strict ITSFM training requirements, it is important to schedule the training when the maintainers can have coverage and will not have any scheduling conflicts. If a participant must leave for a meeting or an important conference call, he or she will not be issued login credentials or a course completion certificate and will be required to take the class at another time starting from the beginning. Optimal class sizes should be around 6 total students. This typically necessitates multiple training classes so that while one group is in class for 2.5 days, the other maintainers are providing field coverage.
User Access Is Contingent Upon Successful Training Completion – Certificate Issued
Upon successful completion of the respective training session, each participant will be issued a certificate of completion and provided with login credentials to access the ITSFM system. Those completing the Manager/ITS Engineer training are eligible for user access as a ‘Viewer’. Those completing the Maintainer training are eligible for user access as a ‘Maintainer’. Each user is granted ITSFM access to the regional center where that individual is responsible for management or maintenance. Access to other regions may be granted if permission is given by the respective owners of those facilities.
ITSFM Implementation Planning
The Florida DOT Central office is also providing a half-day Implementation Briefing which can be followed up with a one day Implementation Plan Workshop. This two part ITSFM implementation process is designed to assist facility owners in moving from the decision phase to the practicing phase. There are many benefits associated with using the ITSFM, but before deploying and experiencing those expected benefits, many decisions must be made followed by the establishment and execution of operating policies. The Florida DOT Central Office will support the Districts in creating a customized implementation plan which will identify requirements for the desired ITSFM features/applications and the personnel and resources necessary to populate the ITSFM data fields. The implementation plan will also include scheduling information as well as potential phasing schemes depending upon the features each respective District chooses to implement. The Florida DOT Central Office has developed a workshop format and also provides each District with free facilitation support. Each respective District must identify the key staff members and ensure their participation in the implementation plan workshop to create a comprehensive and thorough document used to identify precise staff-hours and implementation costs suitable for budgeting purposes.
For additional information, please contact Randy Pierce at Randy.Pierce@dot.state.fl.us
