GIS: The Management Perspective

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GIS The Management Perspective

• Talbot J. Brooks
• ASU Dept. of Geography

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GIS Management

• Management decisions are the single most
  important component inherent in creating a
  successful GIS
• Management has the big picture perspective
• Budget
• User expectations
• Planning
• Technical implementation
• I am yet to hear about a single GIS project that
  failed due to technical considerations

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Some general keys to success

• Organization
• Justification

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Organization of the study/people

• Emphasize your talent and ideas.
• Give the reviewer an idea of how your project is
  going to function on a daily basis
• Provide milestones for the implementation
• Emphasize project quality and uniqueness

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A word about need based arguments

• Who are you more inclined to fund
• My department is a mess and I need this cool
  software and analysis system to straighten it
  out, but I dont have the money to make it work
• Were doing an excellent job but have some
  innovative ideas we would like to implement.
  Heres our plan. Will you help us do something
  new and exciting?

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Selling points

• Emphasize advantages of GIS to individual users
  and entire organization
• Require high level of competency by all
  participants
• Ensure high level of management commitment from
  all management levels in the organization
• Require participation in team building and team
  participation within between departments
• Ensure minimum data quality and access for all
  users
• Require development team to set realistic
  expectations
• Minimize time between user needs assessment and
  availability of useful products.
• Develop positive attitude toward change within
  organization
• Ensure level of technology is appropriate for
  intended uses
• Highly visible Pilot Project that is successful

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GIS Development Cycle

• Needs Assessment
• Creation of an implementation plan
• Develop a theoretical framework
• Survey of Available Data
• Survey of GIS Hardware and Software
• Detailed Database Planning and Design
• Database Construction
• Pilot Study/Benchmark Test
• Review/modify the original plan
• Acquisition of GIS Hardware and Software
• GIS System Integration
• GIS Application Development
• GIS Use and Maintenance

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The Needs Assessment

• This is the single most important element in GIS
  development
• Must consider 3 factors
• Who are the users?
• What is the end product?
• Who is going to manage the GIS (oversight)?
• Accountability
• Fiscal responsibility

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Basis for Needs Assessment

• Describing their needs to the GIS analysts
• Learning what the GIS will be capable of
  accomplishing for them
• Understanding the nature of the GIS development
  cycle - the time involved and the costs.

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The implementation plan

• Define the scope of the project
• Spatial boundaries
• End products
• Participants/users
• Create project goals and timelines
• Assign responsibilities

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Develop a theoretical framework

• Sketch out how things will work
• Work flow
• Data flow
• Quality assurance
• Documentation
• Procedures!!!!
• Training and consensus building

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Survey available data

• DO NOT RE-INVENT THE WHEEL!!!
• Become familiar with the origin of data
• Maricopa County Association of Governments puts
  out a street layer
• They get it from ESRI
• ESRI gets it from TIGER line files
• TIGER line files originate from the Census
• The Census gets them from ADOT, MCDOT, and
  municipal government
• Get out there and look to see whos producing data

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Survey of hardware and software

• Do not just limit software search to GIS packages
• Include all of the software being used by
  prospective users see if it can integrate
• Likewise for hardware most municipalities and
  organizations use many different platforms
• TALK TO VENDORS AND GET ON SITE DEMONSTRATIONS

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Detailed database planning and design

• For our purposes well always base things upon an
  RDBMS
• Many ways to diagram, but well use
  Entity-Relationship (ER) diagrams
• For GIS, its best to construct ER diagrams based
  upon cardinality

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Cardinality the GIS application of an RDBMS

• Attributes can be single or multi-valued.
• Species is a single-valued attribute of
  FOREST-STAND
• FACILITY has an attribute called PointId which is
  the identification for the spatial location of
  instances of the entity. It is possible for a
  given facility to span two distinct point
  loocations.

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Cardinality contd

• Entity-entity relationships are described by
  cardinality which may be
• One to one. A FOREST can have only one MANAGER
  and a MANAGER can have only one FOREST
• Many to one. Many FACILITIES may be contained
  within one FOREST
• Many to Many. The relationship water_supply may
  have many entries and may be connected to many
  entries FACILITIES, FOREST, etc

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Diagram Characteristics

• Boxes represent entities
• Ovals represent attributes
• Diamonds represent relationships
• Note how cardinality is depicted
• Key attributes are underlined
• Multi-valued attributes are in double ovals

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Entity-Relationship (ER) Diagrams A Conceptual
Model
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Exercise work in pairs 10 minutes

• Choose whose job you want to model
• Pick a feature that matches each geometry type
  (point, line). For example
• For FD points, pick hydrants and pump stations
• For FD lines, pick streets and water mains
• For FD polygons, pick service areas and zoning
• Sketch an ER diagram similar to the one shown for
  your job

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Database Construction Additional Considerations

• What will be the source for each data item?
• How will sharing be arranged? . . purchase? . .
  license? . . other agreement?
• Who will own the data?
• How will new GIS data be integrated with existing
  data files (legacy systems)?
• Who will be responsible for updates to the data?
• How will the cost of the data (creation and
  maintenance) be allocated?
• Who will provide public access to the data?
• Who will be responsible for data archiving and
  retention? . . of the original? ..of copies?

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Pilot Study/Benchmark Test

• Pick a subset that is representative of all
  assets/arenas to be incorporated in the GIS
• Involve all parties and users
• Dog and pony show GET FEEDBACK!

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Review and modify

• Review and modify plan
• Achieve buy-in
• Do not move forward until pilot study complete
  and all users are satisfied

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Purchase hardware and software

• Talk to your purchasing folks up front
• Learn the purchasing rules
• Competitive bids create equalizers

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Roll it out

• System integration
• Subsequent application development
• Use and maintenance