Best Practices in GIS Implementation

1. Best Practices in GIS Implementation Mark Robbins, ESRI

2. Agenda • Overview of the GIS Planning & Implementation Process • The “Why” Part • Planning & Implementation Steps • The “How” Part • Planning & Implementation ‘Best Practices’

3. What’s the Purpose of this Session? • Encourage successful organization-wide GIS Implementation • Help you understand how technology fits within the organizational objectives • Broaden the perspective of Implementation to be more than a specific project or technology implementation • Help you understand how important the “planning” is to the success of the GIS Implementation

4. Why is Implementation Planning Necessary? • Now more than ever, short and long term planning are critical to successful on-going GIS Implementation • Technology has evolved and is now more integrated and interdependent than ever before • Business needs have evolved and demand better planning to meet those needs • Implementation Planning is proactive problem solving • Implementation: “to carry out: ACCOMPLISH: esp.to give practical effect to and ensure of actual fulfillment by concrete measures.” - Webster

5. Overview of Implementation Planning Steps • Identify GIS Business Objectives and current Business Processes • Determine the Technology and System Infrastructure Readiness to Meet the GIS Business Objectives • Determine GIS Database Readiness to Meet the GIS Business Objectives • Determine Organization Readiness to Meet the GIS Business Objectives • Develop Enterprise GIS Implementation Plan to Meet the GIS Business Objectives 6. Validate the Implementation Plan meets the GIS Business Objectives in R&D Lab

6. Step 1. Identify GIS Business Objectives and Business Processes • A successful implementation depends on a clear understanding of the organization’s GIS business needs, which must be met by the GIS. • If the business needs are not met the entire implementation is at risk. • While a Business Analyst usually performs these tasks using systematic and proven methods, it is possible to conduct in-house analysis.

7. Define the GIS Business Need • What are the organizations Critical Success Factors? • Profitability • Public Facilities Stewardship • Public Safety • What are the GIS Business Needs that support these Critical Success Factors? • We need to integrate our CIS with our GIS in order to stay competitive and be more efficient. • We need web access to the same GIS database as desktop users • We need to provide remote field inspectors with up-to-date land information • We need to integrate infrastructure planning with billing systems • We need the planning department, water and sewer departments to share the same property and address information with transportation department.

8. Describe the current Business Process Examples • Customer numbers are printed out in tabular format to be compared with a plot of our customer locations. • Remote field inspectors currently must make a request to GIS services that print a map of the most recent land data and give it to the field inspectors. • Each department maintains their own property and address information

9. State the expected Business Objective Examples • Customer numbers will be updated daily in the GIS • Remote field inspectors will use handheld GIS to view up-to-date property information in the field and download it to the central GIS database when returning to the office. • All departments will have access to the standard city address and property database

10. Understanding the business needs of the request • Understand the workflow, challenges, and expected outcomes that help solve the problem • The technology is applied to the business problem • The technology or “how” you do that comes next

11. Expected Outcome for Step 1 • Document • GIS Business Needs • Business Objectives • GIS Business Procedures • GIS Business Use Case Scenarios

12. Step 2. Determine the Technology and System Infrastructure Readiness to meet the Business Objectives • The Technology Readiness Assessment should be driven from the Business Need perspective rather than from the technologies capability perspective. • The readiness of the system infrastructure (hardware, software and network), are critical to the success of the implementation plan. • This part of the plan addresses the size and number of data servers, application servers, end-user desktops, and the expected network traffic or capacity. • May require purchasing considerations.

13. Breakdown • Determine Hardware requirements to support GIS applications and procedures • Define Software requirements to support implementation • Determine Network and communication requirements to support implementation • Identify which Business Objectives the technology is intended to fulfill • Determine if any existing technologies should be replaced • Determine the type of technology needed based on the Use Case Scenarios • Technology Readiness Assessment

14. Determine Hardware requirements to support GIS applications and procedures • Data Server configuration sizing and compatibility • Web Server configuration sizing and compatibility • Desktop image configuration • Head-room/growth forecasting These are not limitations created by current hardware. It is information generated as a result of meeting the business needs.

15. Define Software requirements to support implementation • Number of web viewers • Number of desktop viewers/editors/analysts • Underlying Software dependencies (RDBMS, Servlet Exec, Apache, VB, etc…) • Number of licenses in each system environment for testing custom applications on new software releases and data releases

16. Determine Network and communication requirements to support implementation • Bandwidth requirements • Communication protocols based on system design • Location of web servers to data servers • File transfer vs. transaction based methods • Assess nature and amount of anticipated application traffic

17. Identify which Business Objectives the technology is intended to fulfill • Use the outcomes from step 1 to determine which Business Objectives should be targeted for a specific technical solution. • Match the appropriate technology solution to the individual user or business need • This task implies some level of prioritization based on the entire organization’s needs.

18. Determine if any existing technologies should be replaced • Deficiencies to meet GIS Business Needs • Hardware replacement issues • System maintenance problems • Growth limitations

19. Determine the type of technology needed based on the Use Case Scenarios • Identify desktop based technology needed • Identify Server-based technology needed - Data Server (vector and raster) - Web Server • Identify technology dependencies - Operating System compatibility - RDBMS compatibility • Web server software environment • Identify need for mobility or long-transactions

20. Technology Readiness Assessment • Identify which Business Objectives the technology is intended to fulfill • Determine if any existing technologies should be replaced • Determine the type of technology needed • Specify the Technology Requirements • Document the Hardware/Network Configuration Review

21. Expected Outcome for Step 2 • Document • Technology Readiness Assessment • HW/SW/Network configuration review • System Design

22. Step 3. Determine Enterprise GIS Database Readiness • Data is a critical element of the success of the GIS Implementation Plan. • The quality and availability of the data will determine whether the technology will work correctly and whether the GIS Business Objectives will be met. • After the GIS data requirements have been identified, an assessment of “readiness” of the data to meet these requirements must be conducted. • This assessment should not only address the completeness and accuracy of the data, but also the usefulness of the data to meet the GIS Business Objectives. • In addition, data preparation procedures should be identified to complete the GIS Database Readiness.

23. Identify Geographic Data and other data to be used • Use Case Scenarios in Step 1 will help identify what data is needed • The Identified Data Requirements in Step 3 will help determine how the data needs to be structured • Inventory the spatial data sets necessary to meet the GIS Business Objectives • Inventory the non-spatial data sets necessary to meet the GIS Business Objectives • Identify metadata to be used in the assessment • Identify pilot area if necessary

24. Assess the geographic data sets to meet the GIS data requirements • Quantitative Assessment - Completeness of Geographic area - Completeness of Attribute data • Qualitative Assessment - Geographic Resolution - Locational Accuracy - Compatible Format - Overall Usefulness • Gap Analysis - Identify what geographic data is missing - Identify what attribute data is missing • Identify format or structural changes

25. Prepare the Conceptual Database Design to support the data requirements • Document the Conceptual and Physical Database Design in a diagram • Conduct a Conceptual Database Design Review with application, data and system infrastructure team members • Verify the Database Design will meet the GIS Business Objectives

26. Identify Data Preparation Procedures • Determine if a data migration is necessary • Determine if data clean-up is necessary • Determine how to complete any missing data • Develop data maintenance procedures • Versioning/Long-transaction policies and techniques • Data replication and synchronization implications

27. Develop a Prototype Database to meet the GIS Business Objectives • Populate the database design with the identified geographic data sets in a prototype database • Test the prototype database in R&D environment • Verify the prototype database meets the GIS Business Objectives • Incorporate any necessary changes

28. Expected Outcome for Step 3 • Document • Database Assessment • Data Model

29. Step 4. Determine Organization readiness • Organizational Readiness is the sufficient preparation of the organization to implement the GIS. • This can mean changing current work processes that occur in isolation of each other, re-defining roles and responsibilities, skills assessment for technical staff and developing a training plan.

30. Breakdown • Prepare organization support structure • Assess user skill levels and identify Training needs • Develop training plan to support the Enterprise GIS implementation • Identify internal support procedures • Develop data and application release procedures • Produce Development Decision Criteria

31. Prepare organization support structure • Leadership Role - Provide Vision for the Implementation - Provide Direction for the Implementation • Project Management Role - Responsible for specific projects within the Implementation Plan • Technical Analyst Role - Responsible for specific tasks within each project • GIS Advisor Roles - Long-term Management Advisor - Project Implementation advisor - Technology advisor

32. Assess user skill levels and identify Training needs • Determine technical skill requirements for each category • Determine technical staff proficiency in each category • Identify knowledge gaps

33. Develop training plan to support the Enterprise GIS implementation • Determine who has received training in each category • Determine if training on current versions of technology is necessary • Identify curriculum paths for each category - Instructor training - Virtual training - Technical Workshops - Knowledge transfer methods • Develop training schedule for each category

34. Identify internal support procedures • Data Maintenance Procedures • Database support procedures • Web support procedures • Application and Database Development procedures • Designated individual for the purchase of hardware and software

35. Develop data and application release procedures • Proof-of-Concept • Prototype Development • Pilot project • Production schedules • Application Version Control

36. Produce Development Decision Criteria • When to use Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) technology • Less expensive, less risky, delivered sooner • When to develop custom-built applications • COTS won’t meet Business Objectives • When to deliver web-based solutions • Many users, large view-only database, basic functionality • When to deliver desktop-based solutions • Fewer users, data maintenance, more functionality

37. Expected Outcome for Step 4 • GIS Support Procedures • Training Plan

38. Step 5. Develop GIS Implementation Plan • The next step in preparing for implementation is to synthesize the information from the previous planning steps into a plan that can be implemented. • This plan should provide management staff with the information necessary to make appropriate decisions during the deployment stage of the implementation.

39. Document the results of each of the tasks previously identified in this implementation guide • GIS Business Needs Document • Technology Readiness Assessment Document • Functional Requirement Document • System Design Document • Database Assessment Document • GIS Support Procedures • GIS Training Plan

40. Prioritize resulting implementation tasks • Abbreviate tasks if appropriate • Eliminate or add to tasks to fit your organizational needs For Example • Needs assessment is complete, accurate and up to date • Hardware review recently completed

41. Identify any potential conflicts in the implementation tasks Examples • No organizational structure before GIS Business Objectives are defined • Installation scheduled before staff training • Not sure how many licenses are required to support testing and production environments

42. Identify critical path elements • HW/SW needs to be in place soon after training is completed. • Organizational support structure needs to be in place before application or data is released in production

43. Identify resource constraints • Hiring freeze will not allow me to provide DBA support • Current Data Server is not adequate for our GIS Business Objectives • Existing support staff is not adequately trained

44. Create a Work Breakdown Structure • Schedule Tasks • Set Milestones • Assign responsibilities • Document Dependencies • Establish budget

45. Expected Outcome for Step 5 •   Enterprise GIS Implementation Plan

46. Step 6. Validate that the Implementation Plan can meet the GIS Business Objectives in R&D Lab • All of the implementation planning previously completed needs to be validated in a Development or Test system environment. • Validation can be focused on data, technology, organizational procedures, or the entire system design.

47. Prepare test criteria based on defined GIS Business Objectives Example • Customer numbers shall be updated every 24 hours • Remote field personnel can access data live and is never more than 24 hours out of date • All addresses will meet US Postal Service standards and will be maintained by one department and accessible to all departments

48. Prepare testing procedures • Identify staff required • Identify technical resources required • Develop functional test matrix

49. Document test results • System environment and testing configuration • Pre and post conditions • Performance metrics • Unexpected anomalies

50. Step 7. Review results and incorporate changes to the implementation plan • Were the Business Objectives met? • Were the data preparations adequate? • Is the system infrastructure adequate? • Is the organizational structure and procedures sufficient? Are there any remaining technology issues?