Strategic management is an umbrella term covering strategic planning and decision-making structures and processes that are used to set priorities and allocate resources (including time, funding, staff capacity and capabilities).

Strategic management practices provide a way to establish alignment across different business units and tools reinforcing organizational priorities and tracking progress towards established objectives. Additionally, these practices provide a means to evaluate organizational structures and roles to ensure they remain aligned with changing expectations and requirements.

Talent management incorporates workforce planning, recruiting and retention, succession planning, and employee development practices which help organization identify, hire, and develop the skilled staff needed to design, deploy, and integrate these improvements into the complex systems, tools, and associated business practices of the DOT.

As new technologies, tools, and practices are implemented, the skills required by the TAM workforce will change, requiring techniques to identify changing staff and job requirements as well as provide the training necessary to develop these capabilities in existing staff.

Initiative management includes a range of business, process, and program management techniques which enable the organization to effectively deliver upon its priorities.  This is essential as DOTs are complex organizations, with wide ranging, interdependent programs and strategic initiatives requiring planning and management for effective execution. 

Establishing standard tools, techniques, processes, roles and responsibilities for documenting and delivering upon detailed business cases for program and process improvement is critical to undertaking the complex data, information system, and business improvement projects recommended in this guidance.

Knowledge management encompasses a range of techniques for building, leveraging and sustaining the know-how and experience of an organization’s employees. 

Some agencies choose to pursue knowledge management as a strategic, agency-wide practice; others implement knowledge management techniques without central coordination – as an integral part of staff management, project management, information management, or research/innovation activities.