MnDOT Policies

Internal Access to MnDOT-Owned Public Data

MnDOT Policy #DM007
Revised: March 5, 2024

View/print signed policy (pdf)

Please go to the MnDOT Org Chart to find specific contact information: Org Chart.

Responsible Senior Officer: Deputy Commissioner/Chief Administrative Officer
Policy Owner: Chief Counsel
Policy Contact: Data Practices Compliance Official

Policy statement

This policy provides the criteria governing MnDOT employee access to public, read-only data residing in MnDOT's Common Data Environment (CDE). MnDOT-owned data in the CDE that are classified as public and have been optimized for consumption shall be available to MnDOT employees who request access.

This policy does not govern:

• Write access to transactional applications; shared drive folder permissions; and any onboarding or off-boarding processes that have traditionally been implemented through the Access Authority role
• Access to not public data
• Access to public data that are not final or have not been optimized for consumption (see fig. 1.1)
• Access to non-MnDOT-owned data and systems, including enterprise systems owned by other state agencies (e.g., SWIFT and SEMA4)

Users of CDE data are encouraged to consult subject matter experts—either the Application Coordinator or Subject Area Steward—for guidance on the interpretation and proper use of data.  Employees who use data from MnDOT's CDE are responsible for following the standards for publication of any derived data, reports or analytics.

Reason for policy

Data from MnDOT's transactional systems are routinely published to a central repository for query and analysis. This policy clarifies the rules and standardizes the process for MnDOT employees to access public, MnDOT-owned read-only data, residing in MnDOT's CDE, and serves to ensure that these public data are readily available to MnDOT employees without the employees having to obtain permission from the owners or stewards of the individual source applications.

Applicability

All MnDOT employees must comply with this policy.

Definitions

Common Data Environment (CDE)

A common digital space for collecting and sharing data that has been loaded from transactional source systems.  Similar to a data warehouse or data lake, a CDE is a central repository from which users can access a range of data from multiple sources for query and analysis.

Data Classification

The categorization of government data to distinguish public data from not public (such as private, confidential nonpublic, or protected nonpublic) data. (See fig. 1.2.)

Data Warehouse

A store of data from a variety of operational sources, made available to end-users (data consumers) for query and analysis.  Warehoused data are read-only.

Government Data

All data collected, created, received, maintained or disseminated by any government entity regardless of its physical form, storage media, or conditions of use (See Minn. Stat. §13.02 Subd. 7). 
MnDOT data are government data.

Not Public Data

Any data collected, created, maintained, or disseminated by a state agency which has a classification other than public. Examples of not public data include:

• Attorney-client privileged information
• Certain personal data about individuals
• Bid escrow documents
• Cost estimates before the project is awarded
• Overhead data of companies
• Property evaluation data

Optimized Data

Final data that are structured or that have been re-structured to improve efficiency of retrieval and processing.

Public Data

All government data collected, created, received, maintained or disseminated by a government entity shall be public unless classified by statute, or temporary classification pursuant to Minn. Stat. §13.06, or federal law, as nonpublic or protected nonpublic, or with respect to data on individuals, as private or confidential.

Read-Only

A descriptor for both a type of data and a type of data access:

• Read-only data may be read or viewed but not changed.
• Read-only access permits the viewing of existing, read-only data but does not confer rights to create, update or delete data.

Transactional Data

Data residing in or loaded directly from their operational (source) applications without having been processed or de-normalized (transformed). Transactional, or operational, data are live data in their native software systems and subject to write access by authorized system users. Transactional data are routinely copied (loaded) to warehouse environments for read-only consumption.

Write Access

Permission to write, or make changes, to data in an electronic system.  This type of access is sometimes described by the acronym "CRUD," which stands for Create, Read, Update and Delete. 

Responsibilities

MnDOT Employees

• Request access to public MnDOT-owned data by submitting an IT Service Request.  

MNIT @ DOT Database Group

• Implement, or fulfill requests for, access to public data in the CDE by any MnDOT employee. The mechanism to fulfill requests is creation of a common access method (role) for all MnDOT-owned final public data in the warehouse/CDE.

MnDOT's Responsibility Authority and Data Practices Compliance Official (DPCO)

• Responsible for final decisions about the classification of any MnDOT data elements.  To contact Data Practices email DataPractices.DOT@state.mn.us.

Policy Owner (Chair, Data Domain Stewards (DDS) Group)

• Review the policy every two years to ensure the policy remains up to date.
• Ensure training associated with the policy remains current.
• Monitor state, federal, enterprise, agency, or other requirements that apply to the policy or procedures.
• Consult with the Office of Chief Counsel to ensure the policy and procedures remain compliant with all state, federal, enterprise, agency, or other requirements.
• Ensure that necessary approvals by state or federal agencies are obtained before changes to the policy or procedures are implemented.
• Work with the Policy Coordinator to revise the policy and/or confirm its accuracy.
• Communicate policy revisions, reviews, and retirements to stakeholders.

Resources and related information

Resources

• About MnDOT's Data Warehouse on iHUB
• Business Data Catalog (BDC)
• Data Practices on iHUB
• Guidelines for Determining Data Classification
• MnDOT's Policy Website

Fig. 1.1

Fig. 1.2

History and updates

Adopted

December 23, 2019

Policy review

• January 4, 2022 - no changes

Revised

• First Revision: March 5, 2024

This policy's next scheduled review is due March 2026.