Adding New Forms and Workflows to the State of Washington’s Traffic Information System

A traffic safety agency can expand an existing electronic citation system by first understanding the full business, legal, and technical requirements before choosing a solution. When citations, collision reports, court systems, prosecutors, and licensing agencies are connected, adding new document types affects more than one internal workflow. 

In Resource Data’s Washington Traffic Safety Commission (WTSC) case study, the Commission wanted to enhance eTRIP, the Electronic Traffic Information Processing system, by adding a DUI Packet and a vehicle impound form. Resource Data evaluated the processes, gathered requirements, and assessed solution options before the agency moved forward with implementation planning. 

The operational impact is risk reduction. Careful analysis helps avoid workflow changes that create downstream issues for law enforcement, courts, prosecutors, or other state systems that depend on accurate traffic information. 

Requirements gathering is important because law enforcement forms often carry legal, operational, and data sharing consequences. A form may look like a simple document, but in practice it can involve field officers, courts, prosecutors, licensing agencies, signatures, evidence, system navigation, and multiple handoffs.
 
Resource Data’s WTSC case study shows this clearly. The DUI Packet could include one to nine forms, and the vehicle impound form had its own process and requirements. Resource Data documented business requirements, researched legal stipulations such as electronic signature regulations, and evaluated potential solutions against those needs. 

The business impact is better decision making before development begins. Agencies can choose a solution that fits real workflows and legal constraints instead of discovering gaps after the system has already been built. 

Process documentation helps public agencies gain support by turning complicated workflows into clear, shared evidence. When stakeholders can see how a process works, where data moves, and where decisions happen, it becomes easier to compare options and build agreement around a recommendation. 

In Resource Data’s WTSC case study, Resource Data turned the DUI and impounded processes into manageable subprocesses and documented each one narratively and visually through process and data flow diagrams. This made findings more digestible and helped support solution recommendations to the State of Washington. 

Clear diagrams and structured documentation reduce confusion, make tradeoffs easier to discuss, and help agencies move from discovery to solution selection with more confidence. 

Agencies should interview multiple stakeholder groups because traffic information workflows cross organizational boundaries. Law enforcement may create the original record, but courts, prosecutors, licensing agencies, and other partners may depend on that information later in the process. 

In this case study, Resource Data conducted more than 20 one on one interviews with subject matter experts from Washington State agencies, including law enforcement, the court system, and the Department of Licensing. Those interviews helped clarify requirements across the full workflow rather than only one agency’s view. 

The result is fewer missed requirements. Bringing partner agencies into discovery helps ensure the selected solution supports the people who create, receive, review, and act on traffic information. 

Job shadowing improves requirements for law enforcement software by showing how work actually happens in the field, not just how it is described in policy or existing forms. For high stakes workflows like DUI arrests, observing real tasks can reveal timing, handoffs, data needs, and usability constraints that interviews alone may miss.
 
Resource Data’s WTSC case study included job shadowing and ride-alongs with law enforcement officers to observe DUI arrests and the process from traffic stops to suspect booking. That field observation helped Resource Data understand the operational reality behind the DUI Packet and related system needs. 

The business impact is lower implementation risk. Software requirements based on observed workflows are more likely to fit officer needs, reduce friction, and avoid costly redesign after deployment. 

DUI Packet workflows can be difficult to digitize because they involve multiple forms, legal requirements, officer actions, booking steps, and information that may need to move to several partner systems. A digital solution has to preserve the integrity of the process while making it easier to complete and transmit. 

In Resource Data’s case study, the DUI Packet was described as comprising one to nine forms. Resource Data documented the process, identified business requirements, researched legal requirements such as electronic signature regulations, and created technical and interface requirements for the chosen solution. 

This led to a more reliable digital workflow design. By breaking the DUI Packet into clear subprocesses, the agency can modernize the workflow without oversimplifying the legal and operational details that make it valid. 

Visual process maps help law enforcement and court stakeholders understand system changes by showing where information is created, reviewed, transmitted, and used. They make complex workflows easier to discuss across groups that may use different terminology or focus on different parts of the process. 

In Resource Data’s case study, there were process diagrams, data flow diagrams, system navigation maps, state models, a conceptual data model, and potential screen mockups. These outputs helped translate detailed requirements into formats that technical and nontechnical stakeholders could review. 

This improved communication across agencies. Visual models help stakeholders spot gaps earlier, validate assumptions, and understand how a new DUI Packet or impound workflow would function in eTRIP. 

Technical requirements for new electronic traffic forms should define navigation, data flows, interfaces, data models, state changes, user screens, and integration needs with partner systems. These details determine whether the new forms can be completed, transmitted, received, and used reliably. 

In the WTSC case study, Phase Two focused on technical and interface requirements for the selected solution. Resource Data produced system navigation maps, state models, data flow diagrams, a conceptual data model, and potential screen mockups for the DUI Packet and vehicle impound form workflows. 

Clear technical requirements give development teams and agency stakeholders a shared blueprint, which reduces ambiguity before building work begins. 

Legal requirements matter because traffic enforcement documents may need to satisfy rules around signatures, evidentiary validity, transmission, and official records. If a digital workflow does not account for those requirements, the technology may create legal or procedural risk, even if it works technically. 

This case study notes that Resource Data researched legal stipulations, including electronic signature regulations, as part of Phase One. That analysis helped assess solution options against business and legal requirements. 

The operational impact is compliance confidence. Agencies can modernize forms and workflows while reducing the risk that electronic documents fail to meet legal expectations for courts, prosecutors, or other partner agencies. 

A phased analysis reduces risk by separating discovery and solution selection from detailed technical planning. This helps agencies confirm the right direction before investing heavily in implementation of details or system changes. 

In Resource Data’s WTSC case study, the work was completed in two phases. Phase One documented DUI Packet and vehicle impound processes, identified business requirements, researched legal stipulations, assessed possible solutions, and recommended the best fit. Phase Two completed technical and interface requirements for the selected solution. 

The result was better use of budget and stakeholder time. A phased approach gives agencies a defensible path from problem understanding to solution design, and that makes complex modernization work easier to manage.