The document introduces the MTA's Enterprise Asset Management System which provides a common framework to manage transportation assets across MTA agencies. It describes the three layers of the system: 1) The MTA Framework defines how agencies work together as an enterprise; 2) The MTA Asset Management Framework defines how agencies develop and justify investment plans; 3) The MTA Capabilities Model defines day-to-day operations. The system aims to improve decision making, justify funding needs, and ensure a state of good repair for over $100 billion in assets.

1. µEnterprise Asset Management
The MTA Asset Management
System Summary
Metropolitan Transportation Authority
All rights reserved © Copyright 2017
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Michael Salvato, Director and Program Executive,
Enterprise Information and Asset Management
This document introduces the what, why, and how we work as an Enterprise within
The MTA Asset Management System. It is intended for all employees and suppliers
who make decisions and invest money, time and effort in our transportation network,
and those who work to further develop and apply asset management at the MTA.
Applying a common asset management approach will allow each Agency to make
relevant, appropriate, and timely maintenance and investment decisions which will
deliver their Agency objectives, overall MTA objectives and stakeholder requirements.
Widespread and effective use of The MTA Asset Management System will enable us
all to work more coherently and effectively in our day-to-day jobs. It will assure alignment of your work with
the objectives of the organization and stronger justification of our asset investment plans to gain the funding
we need to sustain a State of Good Repair across the asset base. It will also help you more effectively interact
with colleagues in your organization, at other Agencies and with outside organizations, so that we can learn,
develop and improve the MTA.
Purpose of this Document
This summary has been prepared to provide a quick reference on the context, format, intent, and use of The
MTA Asset Management System for officers, employees, and suppliers of the MTA. It describes the
components of the management system and its integration and alignment with asset management best
practices and the international standards set forth on ISO55001.1
It has been developed collaboratively with
all the Agencies and provides a consistent general framework to assist each MTA Agency in developing
internal asset management policies and procedures that are governed by this framework at the Enterprise
level. It recognizes that each Agency is different, and allows them the flexibility to tailor their approach in a
manner best suited to their unique capabilities and level of asset management maturity. More detailed
technical documents and are available by contacting eam@mtahq.org
Mandate for Asset Management
In the past 30 years, the MTA has spent nearly $115 billion to renew, enhance, and expand its asset portfolio to
provide vital transportation services to the region. For the next 20 years, capital needs are estimated to exceed
$100 billion. Being able to justify full funding to address the investment needs of our MTA transportation
network and demonstrate that this funding is being used efficiently and effectively to provide safe, reliable
transportation is essential. These are also some of the biggest challenges MTA and its Agencies face.
In response to the ever-increasing challenge of justifying funding, Chairman Prendergast initiated the MTA
Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) Program across the organization. He said of the EAM Program:
“The goal of Enterprise Asset Management is to create an effective management system that supports
informed decision making for operational and capital needs, relative to how we manage and maintain all
of our infrastructure assets.”
1
Internationally agreed guidance on the scope and implementation of an Asset Management System can be referenced in the ISO 55000 series of standards,
particularly ISO 55002:2014, and is not repeated here.

3. “There's a direct connection between safer service and better asset management, and nothing is more
important to me than the safety and security of our customers. Nothing.”
“As we come under increased pressure from funders and other stakeholders, we must become more
effective at planning and delivering our projects and services over the whole asset lifecycle. Unless we
can fully justify our funding requirements, we put our entire mission of providing world-class
transportation services for the New York metropolitan region at risk.”
An effective management system will help all levels of the organization to make more informed, transparent
and data-driven capital and operating investment decisions. This will enable better use of resources, better
justify funding requirements, and, ultimately, lower the cost of keeping the assets in a State of Good Repair,
while improving the safety and reliability of operations. Updating the MTA management systems is required to
comply with new Federal Transit Administration (FTA) and/or Federal Highway Administration (FHWA)
regulations. This will also include enhancing the current MTA Twenty-Year Needs and investment prioritization
processes.
The MTA Asset Management Policy and Performance Management Framework
A clear understanding of the organization's objectives is critical to effective asset management. All decision
making investments and improvement initiatives should be aligned with these objectives. The success of MTA
and its Agencies must be measured against achieving these objectives. An Asset Management Policy defines
the organization’s objectives and drives and directs the activities, decisions, and effort of the organization.
How an organization manages its activities, decisions, and effort is called a ‘management system.’ A
Performance Management Framework measures how effective the management system is and the resulting
progress and success against the objectives in the Asset Management Policy.
The MTA Asset Management Policy
The MTA’s approved Asset Management Policy is centered on seven strategic priorities which summarize the
overall objectives of the MTA. These objectives must be considered as part of every decision made across the
Enterprise, regardless of the type of decision being made, or the frequency (i.e. every minute, every week, or
every year). Compliance to the principles set forth in this policy is mandatory across the MTA at the strategic
level, but the adoption and or method of implementation by the individual Agencies can be tailored to the
unique business characteristics and operational models of each Agency.
2

5. 4
Asset Management Policy
Version 0.5, January 3, 2017

6. 5
The MTA Performance Management Framework
The corresponding Performance Management Framework (PMF)2 has been developed to assure the
measurement and monitoring of progress against the same overall priorities/objectives defined in the MTA Asset
Management Policy. It follows a ‘Plan>Do>Check>Act’ format that includes: establishing the Management System
to deliver the MTA objectives, a Key Performance Indicator (KPI) Hierarchy to monitor progress and success
against the objectives, the use of IT systems to efficiently collate and analyze relevant data to produce reports on
the KPIs, ending with a definition of governance arrangements, i.e. assuring that the right KPI reports are reviewed
by the right people at the right time to allow them to make timely, appropriate, and informed decisions. Different
KPI reports will be reviewed at all levels of the Enterprise, from the depot floor to the boardroom. This
understanding of progress and success against objectives allows changes to be made, where necessary, to the
most appropriate parts of the management system to improve or better align the activities, decisions, and effort
with the objectives.
The two blue boxes in the center are key sucess factors in the implementation and continual improvement of an
effective Performance Management Framework:
• Independent Assessment & Benchmarking – the use of independent reviewers to assess the MTA’s
Performance Management Framework will not only assure it is appropriate and support its continual
improvement but also help demonstrate to funders, regulatory bodies, and other stakeholders that the MTA’s
approach is effective. Similarly, the use of benchmarking - understanding and comparing the MTA’s
Performance Management Framework to those of equivalent organizations - can support justification of the
approach and objectives to stakeholders and establish realistic expectations of what performance is achievable.
MTA Performance Management Framework
2 Further detail, explanation, and guidance on the use of the Performance Management Framework is available in the accompanying 'MTA Performance Management
Framework Guidance' document.

7. • Culture of Performance – establishing the MTA’s Performance Management Framework is both a technical
and cultural challenge for the Enterprise. A culture of adoption and embedding of the MTA Performance
Management Framework throughout the Enterprise is essential to getting the full value and providing
individuals and teams with the information they need to make decisions. This box identifies the need for this
cultural change management element within the framework to help and support users and assure its
adoption across the MTA family.
Central to the MTA Performance Management Framework are the measures or KPIs used, identified by the KPI
Hierarchy box, which shows the MTA Performance Management Framework KPI Hierarchy in more detail.
The KPI hierarchy directly aligns a range of key performance indicators, or measures, with the seven strategic
objectives/themes that the MTA is committed to as an Enterprise and are encapsulated in the MTA Asset
Management Policy. It provides a structured, top-down, approach to align the myriad operational and tactical
metrics and measures currently reported. This assures the value not only of the KPI itself but also of the work or
effort it is monitoring to the Enterprise.
In doing so, the KPI Hierarchy has aligned Agency level KPIs (Outcomes) with the MTA level seven strategic
priorities/objectives to measure how successfully these objectives are being realized (this alignment will be
available in the “MTA Performance Management Framework Guidance”). Underneath this, the hierarchy aligns
System Level KPIs (Outputs) to achieve the Agency Outcomes and Asset Level KPIs (Technical Measures) to
achieve the necessary Outputs. A range of lower level KPIs or measures feed these Technical Measures. It is within
these lower levels that most, though not all, of the existing measures currently captured across MTA and its
Agencies sit.
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MTA Performance Management Framework KPI Hierarchy

8. 7
The MTA Asset Management System
The MTA Asset Management System is made up of three key layers:
1) The MTA Framework defines how MTA and its Agencies interact and work together as an Enterprise;
2) The MTA Asset Management Framework defines how the Agencies work with MTA to develop, justify,
control, and deliver investment plans that fully align with overall objectives – it includes within it the current
MTA Twenty-Year Needs and investment prioritization processes; and
3) The MTA Capabilities Model defines the detail of how MTA and its Agencies work on a day-to-day basis
from depot floor to boardroom. It identifies the capabilities of the Enterprise, i.e. all the activities that have
to be undertaken, and how the capabilities connect together, i.e. information flows, to form a complete
management system for the Enterprise to operate effectively and achieve objectives.
The MTA Asset Management System (Layers)

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Benefits
The MTA Asset Management System, Framework, and Capabilities Model documents what the MTA and the
Agencies currently do, including specific functions, departments, teams, and individuals, and how they work
together to provide transportation services for New York. They assist with identifying opportunities to improve
the way we currently do our business.
Documenting these factors for a complex enterprise such as the MTA enables everyone to see and understand
how their role fits into the bigger picture, who they need to provide information to or source information from
and what factors cause them issues on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. It also enables the mitigation of these
issues on a prioritized basis, whether they be people, process or technology based, to ensure we work smarter
and more efficiently and effectively over time.
The MTA Asset Management System will directly help and enable you and your teams to:
• Share a common understanding for how you currently work (‘as-is’ model) and how you seek to work in the
future (‘to-be’ model);
• Understand how you contribute to the MTA Objectives and the relevant information you need or
interdependencies you have with other disciplines or departments;
• Understand good performance, how it is measured and what the underlying requirements are;
• Understand and justify all of the funding you need to a greater degree than the current MTA Twenty-Year
Needs and investment prioritization processes enable;
• Explore alternative ways to better manage/use existing resources to reduce the need for additional
expenditure;
• Support consolidated capital planning where all plans are ‘rolled up’ into a single plan, to strengthen the ability
to assess and manage risks across departments and agencies;
• Augment the current MTA Twenty-Year Needs process to develop rolling, multi-year Asset Management Plans,
based on your service delivery plans, and assure they comply with federal (FTA/FHWA) regulations;
• Build a workforce with the necessary skills to manage the asset;
• Align and optimize your business processes;
• Understand how you can best use technology;
• Ensure you get IT systems which add value to you and provide the functionality you require;
• Identify good practice we can share across Agencies;
• Continually improve how you work, and;
• Look beyond “historical practice” approaches to managing assets.
The MTA Asset Management System provides the common understanding of how we work and enables
informed conversations between you and project teams regarding the issues and opportunities, what you want
to prioritize and your ideal requirements for efficient and effective operations. It will also provide a basis for you
to ensure you get the most value from Agency or Enterprise improvement initiatives. This commonality allows for
these discussions to happen with colleagues, and internal and external consultants to assure business needs
drive the changes.
It is of paramount importance that The MTA Asset Management System is adopted, used, and implemented by
the operating agencies as common and aligned approach to business process and system improvements. The
management system provides the baseline from which improvement projects should be mapped and

11. evaluated to assure they are contributing to MTA objectives and providing value to the Enterprise. Without the
ability to demonstrate this, proposed improvement projects should not go ahead. It also provides a new lens
with which to assess and understand the real business needs, down to an individual business capability or
integration level, and establish the right balance of improvement changes across people, process, and
technology. Without full adoption of The MTA Asset Management System, the ability to establish a common,
consistent, and repeatable understanding of the problem(s) and breakdown(s) of integrations between business
capabilities with clients will not be possible.
PART 1. One MTA Framework
The top layer of The MTA Asset Management System is the MTA Framework. This Framework depicts, at a high
level, how MTA and its Agencies work together to achieve objectives as an Enterprise. It shows the core generic
Agency Asset Management System (AMS) in the white box and the key interfaces with MTA. It is within the
Agency Asset Management System that the key business decisions are made and investments defined,
justified, and delivered on the ground.
The grey boxes refer to external interactions with the physical, economic, and social environment, including
government, and community groups. These interactions impact MTA objectives and the key decisions that
affect our mission, culture, leadership, and operating strategies.
The red boxes depict people, their competences, and the overall culture that drive, deliver, and sustain the
management system across the MTA family. Culture considers the beliefs, values, and conventions that make
up the way we do things, and how these norms support strategic decisions. Effective change management
supports a smooth transition from the legacy systems to a new and improved asset management system while
maintaining morale and productivity. Change Management encourages skill and competency development,
through training and communication. Communities of Practice provide access to valuable knowledge and best
practices, fosters trust, and a sense of common purpose.
The dark blue boxes indicate that MTA supports each of the Agencies by providing clarity of Objectives top-
down, providing Frameworks for guidance and support and by providing Shared Services to each of the
Agencies where it is more efficient to do so.
The white box represents the scope of Agency Asset Management Systems.
The yellow boxes represent the Strategy and Planning aspects needed to align our asset management activities
and the outputs from our assets with the overall organizational objectives towards a line-of-sight.3
The green box includes the cross-Agency groups that work together to enable continuous improvement of the
management system – enabled by the ‘change’ element included in the red box, nominally showing the Plan-
Do-Check-Act cycle.
The purple box represents the data, information, analysis, and IT systems that underpin and enable the
management system.
The orange box represents how the MTA identifies, understands, and manages risk, and how we establish
effective feedback, review, and reporting mechanisms to ensure objectives are met, all of this supporting the
continuous improvement of asset management activities. This block is also an input to Strategy and Planning
and Asset Management Decision-Making.
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3 Organizational alignment: focus and connect MTA’s business processes to accomplish the same overall business objectives, in order to line them up with the value that the
assets are expected to deliver.

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the MTA Framework highlights the factors which are critical to working together. These include: Agency
compliance with frameworks, provision of effective and timely guidance and services from the MTA, and
assuring the relevant inputs and processes required for the funding approval cycle. It is this latter process
which enables each Agency to manage the costs, risks, and performance of their asset bases in a manner
that is robust and efficient. Effective change management, developing capabilities through training, and
reinforcing new knowledge through communities of practice are critical to ensuring employees are successful
in sustaining the asset management system.
The MTA Framework

13. PART 2. The MTA Asset Management Framework
The second layer of the MTA Enterprise Asset Management System is the MTA Asset Management
Framework which drills down into the next level of detail shown in the ‘The MTA Framework’ and focuses on
describing in more detail the activities and processes that are integrate across the MTA Enterprise.
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The MTA Asset Management Framework

14. PART 3. The MTA Capabilities Model
The MTA Asset Management Framework provides a critical focus on alignment with objectives and the
investment planning activities of the organization. However, it does not fully reflect the overall capabilities and
processes of the MTA on a practical basis. This is the role of the MTA Capabilities Model which is the third layer
of The MTA Asset Management System. It documents how different disciplines or departments interact to
deliver value every day and how the objectives and strategy are embedded into business activities.4
The MTA Capabilities Model provides a detailed and comprehensive model of the MTA and its Agencies’
overall Asset Management System. It incorporates within it, The MTA Management Framework and The MTA
Asset Management Framework previously discussed, as well as the current MTA Twenty-Year Needs and
Investment Prioritization processes. While the nature of the Enterprise appears complex, it is another view of
the overall ‘Plan>Do>Check>Act’ Asset Management System which enables the alignment of all business
activities with overall business objectives.
A business capability is a unique activity or business process that the MTA needs to perform to meet its
mission of providing transportation services in the New York metropolitan region. Capabilities range from a
strategic level (i.e. long-term demand analysis), through the tactical level (i.e. investment prioritization as part
of the Twenty-Year Needs process) to an operational level (e.g. issuing inventory or executing work in the
field). The MTA Capabilities Model systematically identifies all individual business capabilities (small white
boxes) and the associated business integrations (narrow black arrows). The business integrations simply
show the information flows and connections between business capabilities.
To improve business performance, the MTA will need to make improvements to the people, process, and/or
technology that make up each capability or integration. Therefore, it is essential there is a clear definition of
how the Enterprise works.
The MTA Capabilities Model is essentially a blueprint of the MTA as a whole which provides a common
understanding of the Enterprise, and is used to align strategic objectives and tactical demands.5
This model
was developed with agency participation and subsequently approved by the MTA Executive team. As a result,
the MTA now has an agreed upon, consistent, and clear model of how it wishes to run and operate the
business. The MTA Capabilities Model provides:
• The ability for the MTA to define, model, and communicate all activities, interactions, processes, and
technology systems across the Enterprise, including back office functions such as Finance, Procurement,
and Human Resources;
• Definition and understanding of the role of people, process, and technology in each capability of the
business and how they can be improved;
• The alignment of Enterprise data and application architectures with business and performance
requirements, and breaking down barriers between the business and IT;
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4
Further detail, explanation, and guidance on the use of the MTA Capabilities Model are available in the accompanying 'MTA Capabilities Model Guidance' document.
5
Source: Business Architecture Special Interest Group (BASIG)

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• The links between information models in Enterprise Asset Management (e.g. Infor, Bentley, UCAID, Maximo,
ESRI), Enterprise Resource Planning (e.g. PeopleSoft, Hyperion), and operational information systems (e.g.
PARC, TPSS, Hastus);
• The best tool for the MTA and its Agencies to close the gap between their high-level Objectives and the
lower level operating processes, which facilitates embedding the ‘line of sight’ throughout the Enterprise;
• A practical way to implement and accelerate asset management good practice.
To enable compliance with EAM best practices, the MTA and each of the Agencies should use the MTA
Capabilities Model to:
• Review, assess, and embed effective ‘line of sight’ throughout their business capabilities, linking the
capabilities through the strategic, tactical and operational levels;
• Support the development of effective organizational design;
• Drive optimized ways of working across the Enterprise and the removal of departmental silos;
• Provide the model and tools needed to quickly define a future state set of capabilities;
• Support, inform, and guide detailed process mapping across the organization, while ensuring integration
between departments;
• Enable the development of business requirements aligned with IT system requirements, and;
• Undertake gap analyses against recognized good practice and develop effective improvement roadmaps.
The majority of business capabilities in the model are managed and delivered by the Agencies, with a
relatively small number ‘owned’ by MTA, e.g. the interface with state funding, approval of CAPEX/OPEX
budgets, or the development of corporate policies, strategies, and management frameworks. Wherever
possible, Agencies should endeavor to align their IT systems design and business process modelling going
forward with the Capability Model, to ensure consistency, promote the sharing of good practice, and to
support the development of common IT systems.

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The MTA Capabilities Model
Extract from MTA Capabilities Model
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Better Asset Information Management
Underpinning any effective Asset Management System is the need for appropriate asset information to
support decision-making and provide quantitative justification of funding requirements. The ‘need’ can be
defined as ‘getting the right information, to the right people, at the right time, via the right technology.’
A generic approach to the management of appropriate asset information is summarized in the diagram below.
Technology, in terms of IT systems, does not dominate the approach as it can in many organizations. The
people and process elements are as important as the technology. Critically, the requirements of the
organization are essentially what drives everything. The understanding of what decisions the organization
must make and what information it needs to inform these decisions should always be the start point. The MTA
Asset Management System provides the structured products, activities, and links, which identify the decisions
and the need for asset information.
The elements shown within the dotted box have been translated into the ‘MTA Asset Information Management
Standard,’ which is referenced in a separate document for further detail.6
The MTA Asset Information
Management Standard provides the basis for the ongoing development of MTA information management and
information related projects and initiatives to assure they align with objectives. This standard promotes the
notion that “data is a corporate asset” and should be managed and maintained as well as any other Authority
asset. It should be collected once and used over and over again to serve multiple purposes as appropriate
and reside in one official system of record. Standards enforcement is implied throughout this document, from
the establishment of EAM objectives to the delivery and performance monitoring that connects efficiency to
continuous improvement.7
Generic Approach to Asset Information Management
6
Further detail, explanation, and guidance are available in the accompanying ‘MTA Asset Information Management Standard’ document.
7
These standards are based on national and internationally recognized guidelines, such as, ISO 14224, ISO 15046, ISO 15288, ISO 15926, ISO 5500x,
ISO 8000, ISA 95, PAS 55, PAS 1192, FTA, MAP-21, U.S.DOT, OSHA 9000, BS EN 15341, etc.

20. What should I do now?
The universal adoption and use of The MTA Asset Management System is critical to the sustainment of the
MTA, our $1 trillion asset base, and the funding partnerships that we have to support the transportation
networks and services we provide our customers. It will take time to embed these principles and improve, but
we should not hinder nor stop progress and continue to build upon the momentum that has been established
thus far. The continued development and effectiveness and the value it provides to the whole Enterprise
depends on the depth of utilization and acceptance of these guidelines and the resulting compliance across
the MTA Enterprise.
Further Information
Further detail, explanation, and guidance on the use of these documents are available in the accompanying:
• Asset Information Standard: Terms & Definitions
• MTA Asset Information Management Standard
• MTA Asset Hierarchy Guidelines
• MTA Asset Management Information Strategy
• MTA Asset Management Policy
• MTA Capabilities Model Guidance (Business Architecture)
• MTA Performance Management Framework Guidance
The publications and documents referenced throughout this summary are available by contacting
eam@mtahq.org.
Get Involved
Change can be difficult for individuals, and is usually more difficult for organizations. The familiarity of the
status quo is often much more comfortable. However, in order to improve, things must change. MTA depends
on a diverse and engaged workforce to keep New York moving. As MTA Executives, managers, and team
members, you are the most important pieces of a successful transformation. Your support is invaluable.
Thank you for your involvement and commitment to EAM - helping MTA Agencies work smarter, more
efficiently and effectively over time.
Thank you for contributing to the completion of this guidance document. This is a leap towards making the
exciting vision of improving our organization a reality. Team performance earns more than the tangible ‘wins’
that people see. It earns understanding, it teaches the value of collaboration and trust. The MTA Change
Management team will continue to be a willing partner in supporting employees to successfully adapt and
meet new requirements of good practice asset management across MTA Agencies.
Congratulations on achieving this milestone - and your tireless efforts that made this win possible.
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